《Babel - The Path to Ascension: The Golden Children》


 Prologue: The End of An Era

    Father Angus stood in the centre of the medicinal garden, just feeling the cool winter breeze. It was the final day of the year, and the start of a new cycle. That meant hard work and very little sleep during the festival of rebirth. The parish would want to make sure that they had the gods'' favour over the coming year, and that if the new cycle meant there was another deity for worship then they could quickly become favoured. Angus thought that paying lip-service to various powers was asinine, but he was not his parish.


    He was a priest, and so he knew best how uncaring the gods truly were. He knew his role well, but he did not like it. Angus would spend most of the year passing messages down from the gods to the people, while making sure challengers were ready to try to climb Babel for the rest of it. It was tiring, thankless and sometimes down right messy, but the allure of becoming a challenger, and ascending to godhood was too much for some people. If you survived climbing the tower, even if you didn''t become a god, you could still be still tens, maybe even hundreds of times stronger than the average person.


    This meant that people who either wanted to prove their strength or had nothing left to lose would come in hordes. Hordes that Angus had to test and decide whether they actually had the mental fortitude to survive inside Babel, then if they failed the first floor he often had to treat for injuries. It was a draining job, but a necessity to make sure that people wouldn''t throw their lives away.


    The medicine garden always looked its best at night. A lot of the flowers and herbs released a gentle glow that could only be seen in minimal light, and was a key identifier to distinguish the medicinal herbs from their normal counterparts. The garden was designed to be a piece of art in and of itself. Crafted by one of the many previous priests who had a passion for gardening and medicine, the garden was a bizarre piece of artistic horticulture. By day, it was an archaic map of the local area, but by night it was a flickering earthen light show that supposedly represented the priest''s view of the absolute. Some people would spend days in the gardens after they were rejected from the chance to enter Babel, as its healing aura could stimulate their bodies in ways normal medicine never would.


    The aura was the reason why Angus liked it so much. His life had been filled with so much bloodshed, but in that garden he felt at peace. A warrior priest who practiced the book of healing was considered indestructible on the battlefield, and a perfect guard for any situation. There were so few who had practiced in any of the books before entering Babel that no one was even a challenge to Angus. He often wondered whether he missed his old life, before he was assigned this job and met Maris, his wife.


    Angus strolled up and down the pathways in the garden, surveying each herb and checking they were growing properly. Certain plants when combined with a prolific root called ?Silkweed? would augment the healing speed of any wound they are applied to, and because of that silkweed was considered a staple of any medicant. The bulk of the garden contained silkweed, but there were ?Iconis Roses?, for stemming bleeding and sealing wounds, ?Dragon Lilies? for restoring flesh and muscles, and even ?Cillin Root? for curing sepsis. Each plant gave off a blue light during the night, allowing for them to be identified by those trained as a healer.


    Angus dug out a few silkweed roots, putting them into a small pouch with arcane symbols writhing all over it. Some symbolised preservation, some symbolised freshness and a few symbolised space. It was a bag made to preserve herbs and plants for use in making elixirs, pastes, powders and pills, simply known as a herbalists bag. The bag looked slightly silly in Angus'' large hands, as it barely fit in his palm, but its value was so great that he could not afford a bigger one. After picking the herbs he wiped his hands on a grey cloth he was carrying and returned to the rectory where he and his wife lived.


    Maris was looking lovely as she prepared dinner for them both, her long brown hair tied back to make sure it didn''t get in the food and forehead slightly furrowed with concentration. She was a good chef but had not cooked anything truly difficult for several months as she was spending most days helping Angus look after the house and land. She was cooking something special to celebrate the new cycle and it had taken her all day to prepare. She set the meal on a lower heat to let it simmer and turned round to face her husband.


    "Darling!" Angus said, "How is the food coming? It''s going to be the latest dinner we have had since the time you decided to help with fireworks night. Making all fifty people in the village a full three course meal still seems like a fool¡¯s errand to me."


    "As my mother always said; Good things take time, and there''s no point doing something if you aren''t going to put the time in." Her voice was a bit rough on the ear, but Angus loved that about her. He had spent most of his life listening to people with overbearingly rich and defined voices, a little roughness now and then made a welcome change. "Either way, I''m just letting everything simmer for five more minutes and then it will be ready. Did you get a good haul in the garden?"


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    Angus smiled, looking at his beautiful wife. He loved everything about her, from her short, plump frame to the way she swayed when she walked. He felt truly blessed to be with her. "Yeah, I trimmed the garden, made sure there were no plants growing in regions they shouldn''t and harvested a lot of silkweed. If we stock up over the next couple of years we should have enough powdered silkweed for when we are inundated with Babel challengers." He grabbed a couple of bowls and a fresh loaf of bread to prepare for dinner. "We shouldn''t have to worry about that for a while though. My predecessor said that even the shortest and most turbulent cycle had a five year wait on Babel re-opening."


    "That''s good." Maris looked at the pot, tasted it and smiled. "So is this. I''ll serve the food up and we can go and sit in the main hall. You can tell me more about what to expect from these would-be challengers."


    Maris poured a beautiful broth into the bowls and took them into the main room of the rectory. It was a large hall with a door at either end of the building. One door led to the outside world and the other led to the first floor of Babel.


    Babel''s door was incredibly ornate. Made of a dark material, it seemed to absorb the light from the surrounding area. Even though the material it was constructed from was pitch black you could still clearly see six representations of the six great books. Life, a teardrop that symbolised the ?Absolution? clan. Death, a fang that symbolised the ?Mephisto? clan. Order, a crown that symbolised the ?Caesar? clan. Chaos, a four-pointed star that symbolised the four elemental clans. Destruction, a sword that symbolised the ?Dominus? clan. Finally as Maris and Angus at their eyes on the last symbol, a glyph that had been there for time immemorial, they could not help but gasp. The symbol of the book of creation, and the ?Hephaista? clan had been removed.


    This was a completely new event and could only mean one thing. Yes gods rose and fell, but one of the great clans being removed was inconceivable. There were thirteen great clans, each one with at least five Ascendant Immortals, true gods. Ascendant Immortals had completed the trials within Babel and were incomparable existences. Their will could rewrite aspects of reality in connection to their study of the world. The fact that the clan had been removed from power meant that there would soon be a new powerhouse coming out of the depths of the darkness. If the richest clan could fall, then no one was safe. Angus rubbed his hands together nervously, thinking about how the tests would be impacted. If his clan fell then he would leave with Maris and perhaps they could climb Babel together, away from the prying eyes of his old family. He looked at the woman he loved, but she could only continue to stare at the wall in fear. She was only brought back into the present when they heard a knocking at the door.


    Thump Thump.


    The knocking was regular, like a heartbeat. Angus got up and walked over to the door. He assumed it was some excited or arrogant fighter who thought because they were the strongest person in their village or town they could climb the tower. He reached the door and pulled it open to find no one outside.


    Thump Thump.


    Maris looked at Angus as he closed the door. "There''s no one outside, my love." He said walking back to his wife, but his words did not make the knocking stop. After about thirty seconds of panic Maris suggested that the knocking could be from the other door in the hall. Perhaps someone was coming from Babel, trying to get out through the entrance rather than one of the many exits. Angus strode over to the door and opened it. Like usual there was a great black abyss on the other side, but on the step of the door was a small cot. In this small cot were four things; a book, a small metal hammer, an envelope and a new-born child. There was no one else around who could have been knocking, so Angus had to assume that this child was what the knocking was about.


    Angus brought in the baby and its cot, grabbing the letter as he put it on the table. He broke the wax seal on it and began reading as Maris walked over and looked at the child. It was sleeping extremely peacefully despite the noise and having been left on a celestial doorstep. Maris couldn''t bear to see the poor child left on its own and began stroking it. The child turned in its sleep when Angus looked up in horror and said "We have to get rid of it."

 Chapter 1: The Map

    For as long as Laurence could remember he was treated as an auspicious child. The fact that he was born on midnight of the new cycle meant that most people of the village he lived in thought he was lucky. He didn''t mind it too much, but it did annoy him when people rubbed his head for good luck.


    His father was always busy as the village doctor and priest, while his mother was most often seen looking after those who couldn''t look after themselves, namely the needy or the old. The council often said the village would come to a halt without them. Laurence felt proud of his parents, as proud as a boy who was almost six could be.


    On Laurence''s fourth birthday his father had given him a little red leather book for Laurence to practice writing in, but the book looked so pristine that it would have been a shame for Laurence to ruin it, so he chose to write on bits of paper instead. It was Laurence''s favourite possession and he treated it like any other child would treat a stuffed animal.


    Laurence was an inquisitive child. He often got into disproportionately large amounts of trouble because his floppy black hair and little red book were seen where they shouldn''t have been. Once he was caught peeking in on Mrs Haversham and her next door neighbour having sex. He just wanted to know who was having so much fun that he could hear it two gardens away. Another time he was caught in his father''s study, looking at the big medicine book on the desk. When asked how he managed to get in the study in the first place he presented a wooden key to his father and proclaimed that it was a skeleton key able to get through any lock. His father just assumed that he left the door unlocked.


    After the incident with the skeleton key, Laurence''s father decided to teach Laurence about medicine through the white book in his study. He hoped that by taking away some of the mystique about the areas in the house Laurence wasn''t allowed to tread in, the boy would be less interested by them. He was wrong. Laurence simply wanted to know about everything and so, when he wasn''t playing with the other children his age or learning about medicine and the body, he was still getting into places he shouldn''t and witnessing things no child should see. Laurence was often punished for being caught out by his elders, but more often than not it just made him wilier and more determined not to get caught.


    Laurence''s fifth birthday was the day he noticed his special ability. He had a fever that day and dreamt strange dreams of artifacts, armours and bizarre weapons. Most of the things in his dreams he could understand how to make but knew that the materials necessary for the creation of his dream objects were mythical. When he woke up the next day he saw a small hammer tattooed on the palm of his right hand. He wondered if everyone got tattoos after they had a fever so he asked his father, but his father frowned at him for a while and then said not to mention it again. Laurence trusted the best doctor he knew and left it be.


    After that more odd things started happening. First there was the skeleton key incident where Laurence wanted to get into his father''s study so he grabbed a stick, decided it was a key and then it worked like one. Then there was the incident where a group of soldiers came to speak to Laurence''s father. One of the soldiers set up a training dummy to practice his sword on. Laurence was obsessed with watching him, as he had never seen a soldier before.


    Eventually the soldier saw the young boy watching and asked if he would like a go at fighting the dummy. Laurence was ecstatic and rushed to have a try. He held up a little wooden sword for training children and decided that the sword he was holding was a real, extremely sharp, sword. The boy had a few practice swings in the air to get used to the sword then stepped up to the dummy as his father came out to talk to the rest of the soldiers. Laurence swung the wooden blade as hard as he could,and tried to emulate the form of the soldier he was watching. It didn''t go well form-wise, but he cut the dummy in half and left everyone watching lost for words. After that Laurence''s father kept him around when there were visitors like the soldiers.


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    The third incident was when Laurence saw his father''s herb bag and decided he wanted a bag that could fit lots of things in it. He went to his mother and got her to make him a little bag of his own or if fine leather. She sewed the bag together and gave it drawstrings so he could tie it round his neck if he wanted to. It was a lovely little bag, just the right size for a little boy to keep all his little toys and his pens in. After a few days he left his red book in a barn just outside the village. He cried and cried until his father helped him find it but when he did he decided he never wanted to lose the book again. He then put the book in the little bag that was one third its size. When his father saw this event he asked how Laurence performed such a feat, but all the little boy could say was "I wanted it to fit, so it did."


    The day where everything changed for Laurence was soon after his sixth birthday. His father had shown him the herb garden and explained how the garden itself was a map. The boy was enthralled by the idea of an object that showed the surrounding regions and decided he would make a map of the area surrounding him. So Laurence grabbed a pencil and looked for a piece of parchment to draw it on. He had already decided to make the map out of paper rather than something like plants or a block of wood, simply because he didn''t see the point in making something that showed you where you were if you couldn''t see it when you wanted to.


    Laurence looked up and down but couldn''t find any paper that felt right for the map. He was about to give up when he had a thought. "What if I made the map in my book? I have it with me often enough." The thought stuck with him even after he had looked for something else that might work for another hour. Eventually the little boy brought out his most treasured possession and moved pencil to paper.


    "I must be really careful about this." Laurence thought as he began his work. He knew that he would have ruined his favourite thing if he messed this map up so he focussed more intently than he had in his entire life and drew. In his mind''s eye Laurence could see everything around him in a large circle. He drew the closest things to him and slowly spread the map out. He added the chairs and tables around him, the plants (with their names and uses), the animals and eventually all the people within 100 meters of him, and only when the boy decided that he had added enough details into the map did it truly come into its own. The moment that Laurence completed the map it burst into movement.


    All of the people and animals began moving around the map as they were in real life, Laurence could see the dot with his mother''s name next to it moving round the garden with his father''s dot, he could see the dog owned by the tailor lying in a bush outside, he could even see the plants in the garden sway a little. If Laurence had been paying a bit more attention he would have even seen one of the doorways in his home labelled ''to Babel'', but he was too proud of his new creation. Any other person would have been lost for words by this map but Laurence didn''t know any better. This happened to the boy often enough. It wouldn''t happen every time he tried it or even every five times he did, but every-so-often if he wanted to make something enough or got lucky it would work.

 Chapter 2: The Sword

    Laurence closed the book and noticed immediately that something was different. The front of the book was no longer plain red leather, instead it had a hammer embossed on its cover. This hammer was exactly the same as the one on Laurence''s palm. It looked like an odd mix between a war hammer and a smith¡¯s hammer, with its thick hammer-head and long shaft. Laurence was shocked. Had he done this? His making of the map seemed to have triggered the change in some way, but how he had no idea.


    He opened up the book again, looking at the pages after the map. No longer were they blank and clean, instead they were covered in a spidery cursive script. The first half of the book was some sort of guide entitled ?The Art of Making? while the second half was full of pages and pages of schematics dictating the method and process of making a myriad of artefacts, all under the title of ?Godly Machinations?. Almost all of the book went over Laurence''s head but his boundless curiosity would not let him leave it. He had to understand the contents of that book, so he pushed back his long brown fringe and began at the beginning.


    This book contains the acts and processes of understanding a dimension of ?The World''s Form? the young boy read. A lot of the words Laurence had never come across before, but for some reason he still understood. It was as if the process of reading the book instructed him in a way beyond words. It was instructing his entire being, not just his mind.


    Laurence continued reading the book, sometimes having difficulty with the words but never the concepts. Eventually he had to go to bed, but the moment he woke up the next day he began reading again. He did this every day, learning everything that he could from the book. He learnt how to smith and how to fletch, how to sculpt and how to build, how to craft and even how to sew. In the space of a year the boy learned not only how to produce any sort of tool or object, but he also began learning how to refine his odd power with the use of runes and glyphs. From the book Laurence found out that the glyphs on any magic object didn''t have to mean something, they just had to represent their intention to the maker. The standardisation of the glyphic concepts was simply a formality to help artificers at a later date work out what was going on with any object in question.


    It was the day before Laurence''s seventh birthday when he finished the final page. He put down the book and felt a warm sensation all over his body. It was a tingling sensation like he had been dipped in water that was slightly too warm, but not painfully so. Laurence just lay in his small bed feeling the sensation for about ten minutes before it went away. He felt completely refreshed and invigorated, so he got out of bed, put his book in his bag and decided to get dressed. As he stuck on his trousers he noticed that they were coming a bit too far up, but that wasn''t really news. He had been growing quite quickly over recent months and now he seemed to have broken 1.3 meters. He grinned and thought "I''m going to have to make myself some new trousers. I can show mother how good I am at craftsmanship that way!" but that was a game for another day. It was the day before his birthday and he felt incredible, he had finished reading and comprehending the red book, he had even kept up with his medicine and fighting lessons that his father gave him.


    Laurence loved the lessons with his father as he always learnt something new. More and more he was realising how a lot of forms of self-defence just applied his medicinal knowledge but in reverse, and that meant he had even more fun working out which pieces of knowledge connected together. The boy was insatiable, but his thirst for learning was the pride and joy of his father. He would often be bragged about by his parents in town council meetings, how he was learning the art of medicine and battle from his father while he seemed to be picking up his artistic flair from his mother. In their eyes Laurence could literally do no wrong.


    He walked downstairs into the kitchen and ran into his father holding a box full of things from around the time Laurence was born. "Daddy, can we do some fighting today? I feel really active before my birthday!" He idolised his father, the strongest and smartest man in the village. It was everything the young boy sort after, and adding to the fact that the man was over two meters in height he often seemed like a giant from some fairy tale. Laurence knew that if he could even become one tenth of the man his father was then he would be happy.


    "Of course, Law, I''m just putting some of the baby things in the attic and we will begin. Get yourself ready in the courtyard okay?" His father and mother would often refer to Laurence as Law when they were busy. As his father walked upstairs one of the books that Laurence had read to him when he was a baby fell down the stairs, so the boy put it in his bag of holding to give to his father later.


    He walked to the courtyard mulling over his bag of holding, on the outside it was barely 20 cm across. Now, thanks to the descriptions in the red book Laurence had stabilised the dimension inside the bag and it was a solid 25 meter cube of space that he could store his belongings in. He did not think that such a distance was big, but then he had nothing to compare the bag to. The red book only told him how to make the bag, not how common the sizes of bags actually were, but if he had spoken to his father about it, he would have been shocked to discover that his bag was quite rare. The fact that the bag was stable was not enough for Laurence though. He wanted to turn the bag into an even smaller object so it did not seem like he was carrying anything on him at all, but the book said that it would take a large amount of ?Mana? to do so. Unfortunately Laurence still had no real way to regulate his mana, or even the knowledge of what mana really was.


    The boy was lost in his thoughts when he noticed a kind of pulsating feeling coming from behind him. He could feel the sensation coming from the altar in the main hall of the church and he wanted to know what could cause it, but he resisted the urge, his sparring with his father was more important to him for the moment. He had a new creation in his bag that he had to show his father, it was his first proper piece since the map and he was proud of it beyond belief.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.Eventually his father arrived and they put on their padded armour so they were unlikely to really hurt each other picked up staves. Laurence¡¯s father insisted in teaching Laurence the staff. He claimed it was the most versatile tool in combat and that its myriad of styles could be applied to most melee range weapons.


    Over the last three months Laurence had been shown three forms of combat as his father called them. The first was an attacking style called ?Orion¡¯s Chest? Which involved striking the meridian line of the enemy from various angles. The second was a defensive style called ?Orion¡¯s Belt? which involved striking from the meridian line to force the enemy weapons away from your body. The third and final form was a movement style called ?Orion''s Feet? which was formed from a series of straight line movements to attack and defend. The three styles were extremely simple in concept, and worked perfectly together as a form known as ?Orion¡¯s Hunt?. The form was simple enough for Laurence to understand, and succinct enough for him to pick up easily. Because of this he had moved on to sparring with his father, and today was their tenth day of spars.


    They met in the middle and Laurence dove straight for a strike to the chin. The rules were if Laurence could either land a strike once or defend properly for thirty seconds he would win. If neither happened then he would lose. As the pole came towards his father¡¯s face, the man struck the side of Laurence¡¯s weapon diverting it just enough to miss. He then swung his pole down towards the top of Laurence¡¯s head. Laurence jumped backwards and tapped the pole above his head out of the way. He had learnt early on that it was easier to move the tip of a weapon than the base. His father smiled and they shifted back to their starting position.


    Their second round of attacks was slightly quicker. Laurence went for a strike to the abdomen, but just as he was about to be blocked he thrust up at an angle. The two staves collided and the pole almost struck Laurence¡¯s father throat. Laurence¡¯s father leapt in the air and struck towards Laurence¡¯s feet. The boy realised what was happening a fraction of a second too late and his legs became tangled round the pole, causing him to fall over.


    And with that the fight was over. Laurence had lasted less than ten seconds with his father, but he was dripping in sweat. He stood up, bowed and then began taking off his gear.


    ¡°You did well,¡± Laurence¡¯s father began, ¡°But you stopped watching my hands. You can tell where someone is going to move and how they are going to strike based on just their shoulders and hands." He began putting the tools away. "Eyes can lie, but the body cannot. Other than that, you did well. Your form was good and your attacks sharp, I was really impressed with the way you forced me to move your stave into another weak point."


    "Thank you father. I have another thing I want to show you." Laurence said, barely able to hide his grin. Today he would blow his father away in shock with his skill. "I made this over the last year. What do you think?" He pulled out a thin bronze sword bound with strips of cloth and leather at the hilt. The sword could only just be described as a short-sword, as the entire thing was less than a meter in length with an edge on either side of the blade. The sword was stunning, the brass gave it an incredible colour, and the form of the sword itself was beautiful in its simplicity. It was Laurence''s pride and joy.


    "You made this?" Laurence''s father was astonished. "This looks like a weapon made by a master smith! How?"


    "You haven''t seen the best part yet daddy!" Laurence said handing the sword to his father. "Strike something with the sword as hard as you can."


    Laurence''s father shrugged and swung the sword against the side of the house watching it shatter in dismay. "Oh no! I''m so sorry Laurence!" He said turning round to see his son''s beaming face.


    "It''s okay daddy! Just hold the sword in the sunlight." Laurence replied, grinning ear to ear. His father held the sword in the air and watched the blade re-form itself from the break upwards. Within seconds the sword was completely reformed, and even tougher than before.


    Laurence''s father truly did not know whether to laugh or cry. The young boy in front of him had created an incredible artefact and it could only mean one thing.


    "Laurence how did you learn to make this?"


    Laurence answered immediately, his father sounded scared and Laurence had never seen his father scared before. To Laurence fear was for other people''s parents, not his. "My red book showed me. I have been learning ?The Art of Making? for the last year. This is my final product that I constructed just before finishing the book." His father''s jaw dropped. "I finished reading the book this morning, I really enjoyed it. I learned a lot!"


    Laurence''s father couldn''t believe it. A seven year old child had completed the first step on his own, and not only that but within a year. His son was easily equivalent to a golden child of the great clans. This was bad. ¡°Laurence, please listen very carefully.¡± His father bent down and looked him in the eye. ¡°You cannot tell anyone about the fact that you made this, and you should never mention your red book. If you make something else and anyone other than me asks where you got it, you must say that as a golden child of the Absolution clan you earned it.¡± He paused. ¡°Have you got that Laurence?¡±


    ¡°Yes daddy.¡± Laurence thought for a moment and said, ¡°Daddy, is that why our last name is Absolution? Because we¡¯re from that clan?¡±


    ¡°Yes, I am a member of the clan, so my wife and child are too.¡±


    And with that they both went inside. Laurence gave his father the sword to keep and began thinking about his next project. It was hard as since he first noticed it the throbbing sensation coming from the altar had become stronger. It didn''t happen constantly but it was becoming more regular. The throbbing bothered Laurence all through dinner and the evening. It kept him awake until long after his parents had both gone to bed. Finally at around one in the morning Laurence broke. He walked into the rectory with his bag and inspected the altar. The throbbing was coming from behind the great black stele, what Laurence finally realised was a door. He opened the door, revealing an endless abyss beyond and walked in.

 Chapter 3: Before The Test

    For what felt like a long time Laurence saw nothing but emptiness. He was all that there was, all that there could be. He just drifted in the empty space wondering what the point in this place was. After an age Laurence felt a prickling, then a slight pull, then a tug in a direction. He had nothing else to do so he followed the sensation. He had long since lost track of time at this point but after what could have been a minute, or an hour he saw a light and he headed towards it. The light turned out to be a door, just like the one in his house. The closer Laurence got to the door the more it consumed his vision, soon all he could see was the door and then he was through it.


    On the other side was a monster. It looked like a meter tall butler with a terrier''s head, and while it was very snappily dressed it would have made most normal men extremely uncomfortable. For some reason it was holding a pocket watch and eyeing up Laurence as he came through the door.


    "One hour and fourteen minutes, twenty-three seconds. Good." The terrier put its watch away. "My name is Tony Longinex Lupe and I am the master of the first floor test room. Complete this floor and you can begin your climb as a challenger. Before any questions you might have I would like your name, age and where you came from please."


    Laurence was slightly taken aback. In his village dogs couldn''t talk for one thing, for another this was not what he was expecting on the other side of the door.


    "Chop chop. I don''t have all cycle you know."


    "Err right." Said the child. "My name is Laurence Absolution, I am seven years old today and I come from Ribec village." He paused, and then said, "Can I ask questions now?"


    "Oh happy birthday young sir! As a member of that clan I now understand why your time was so good. Yes you can ask questions, but please note that no matter what your test will begin tomorrow. You can take the test as often as you like but if you become too injured during your test you will immediately be returned to your place of origin." Tony was very well spoken, everything he said came out clearly, quickly and in a slightly gruff voice.


    "Oh, okay." Laurence thought for a minute and then finally asked "Are you a man-dog or a dog-man?"


    "What." Tony replied. He had heard many questions in the time he had been presiding over the primary test room, but this was a first. Most people were shocked and confused about the place they were in, if not that then they were curious about the test coming up. No one had bothered to ask if he or any other of his kind were more man than dog or vice versa.


    "Are you a man-dog or a dog-man?"


    "Yes I heard you the first time. What I meant was why ask that?"


    "Then why did you ask what? It seems silly to ask the wrong question because you''ll always get the wrong answer."


    Laurence had no idea how infuriating his questions could sometimes be, and coupled with his interest in everything he would often get side-tracked easily. If you were not prepared he could be a tough child to deal with.


    "Fine then. Why did you ask the question?" Tony said, his patience very quickly running out with the odd child in front of him.


    "Because I wanted to know the answer, silly. How many other people are here?" said Laurence, immediately following another train of thought.


    The dog-man sighed. "There are currently over a hundred people attempting to become Challengers in this dimension but we have around one thousand entrants every week. Maybe one in fifty will pass to the first floor though." Tony attempted to dissuade the child in front of him but he couldn''t do it. Laurence''s boundless curiosity simply meant that he wanted to know what forty-nine in fifty people would never see.


    Laurence continued to interrogate Tony on everything from the inane to the profound as he was shown to the room he was allocated. Eventually Tony could take no more and said "Look. Tomorrow is your test, I have to get a few things ready for it. You are number 205 and I bid you farewell." With that Tony walked off in disgust. It wasn''t that he disliked Laurence, but he could not deal with children. He had enough trouble with his own pups. "The only thing that could stand up to that child''s vexing talk is a bronze mirror or a parrot." He thought as he went about his business.


    The night went by uneventfully. It was the first time Laurence had not slept in his own bed in his memory, so he was quite excited. He saw books on a shelf in his room and looked through them. There were so many stories that he had so much choice in what he wanted to read. Eventually he picked out three at random, ?The Tale of Gudrun and Selene?, ?The Fallen King? and ?The Life of Maleus The Destroyer? then stored the rest in his bag. Each story told a tale that was supposedly a true story about challengers of Babel. The stories varied in tone, but something stuck with Laurence. The Fallen King was an event that happened several thousand years ago, where a creature fell from a place only described as ¡®on high¡¯ and it took the form of a man with split eyes. It sowed mistrust and wreaked destruction on anything that got in its way. Eventually three Ascendant Immortals joined forces and destroyed this being they came to call the Fallen Morning.


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    What piqued Laurence¡¯s interest was that this ¡®on high¡¯ was a place that superseded Babel. Perhaps the tower was not the highest point in the universe, perhaps there was even more than Laurence thought. This idea got the young boy so excited he almost failed get to sleep. In the end he did fall asleep, and morning came quickly.


    That morning Tony brought all the prospective challengers to an odd stone room with several seats. There was enough space to fit around a thousand people in the room, but only enough seats for two hundred people. At the near end of the room was a large set of windows, with each window looking into a different place. Some showed forests, some showed deserts, and a couple were underwater. At the far end of the room there was a simple stairwell which Tony quickly walked in front of.


    ¡°Good day sirs and madams! As you should all know by now, my name is Tony, and I am your first test master. This test will form three parts, and the first two are a lesson.¡± The beastman surveyed those around him for unruly people who might try and ignore the tests, there were usually one or two and he liked to make an example of them. ¡°You might be thinking why do we need a lesson to get into the tower? And quite simply that is why you need the lesson. One or two of you,¡± He glanced at Laurence, ¡°will have some idea what to expect, but most of you will not. Now we are not cruel people in the tower, we will not send people who cannot climb the tower up it, but because of that we need to test you. So the first test is to be able to congeal mana.


    ¡°For those of you that don¡¯t know, around us all is mana. It is the lifeblood of everything and feeds your soul, giving rise to the heroes of yore who had magical abilities and incredible strength. If you cannot congeal it within six months then you will never be able to. This region of space is specially designed to foster the ability in people, so if you fail, it is because you are a talentless hack that got through the gateway by sheer luck.¡±


    At this point a large man in the back exploded out in rage ¡°How dare you!¡± He shouted. ¡°I am the Saderkahn of my people and unmatched in war! I don¡¯t need to take these stupid classes.¡±


    Tony smiled and simply said ¡°Well I have no idea what a Saderkahn is, but if you think you are able to then simply walk into the stairwell behind me and you can climb the tower.¡± He stepped aside and watched as the large man clenched his teeth and looked at the stairway. It felt like some sort of trick to everyone watching, but there was nothing between the man and the stairs. Finally he began walking towards the exit, picking up speed as he went out of fear that the strange beastman might try to stop him climbing. Tony pulled a pained face as the large man ran about four fifths of the way up the room. No one understood why until the hulking body of this braggart smashed into an invisible wall. There were several crunches and a gurgling scream as the man collapsed, his neck had impacted into his body and his jaw had been completely smashed. Most of the bones in his body were in a similar state as his jaw and it did not look like he could move.


    ¡°That, ladies and gentlemen, is why we teach you how to use mana. In front of you there is an invisible wall that detects how much mana is circulating in a person¡¯s body. If it is not at a certain level then you will not be able to pass through.¡±


    Everyone looked at the pile of flesh and bone that used to be the large man and almost unanimously decided that they would take the lessons.

 Chapter 4: A Path Well Trodden

    Once the body of the former giant had been cleared from the room by Tony he began instructing them. "First things first, I should tell you all about the nature of Babel. The tower is a crucible that is designed to make people immortal, it is not the easiest route, nor the quickest, but it is the simplest. No one knows who made the tower originally, but whoever it was they were powerful. The tower is separated into fifty floors, with certain floors being ones that get you to a new stage of being. These floors are known as ''rest floors'' and they do this by making the mana in your body transform into a different state. If you do not have enough mana or you are not a high enough stage then the jump to one of the rest floors could be fatal. This is why we train.


    "I mentioned five stages earlier on. These stages are points that represent extreme jumps in physical and spiritual strength. The first stage, which almost all challengers start at, is the ?Earth? stage. This stage is everyone''s starting point, and is what most people spend their lives trying to escape."


    "Does that mean we are going to have to get to the next stage to get through that door?" Said someone in the back. It was a thought held by most of the people in this odd stone room.


    "Oh no." Tony replied, and most people let out a sigh of relief. "One person in every million has a chance of becoming a ?Saint?, so I doubt most of you will actually get to the first rest floor." Around Laurence jaws dropped. It was one thing to be told to train to achieve power, but another to be told you would almost definitely fail. "Saints are men often spoken of in legends. They are at least ten times stronger than the average person in the Earth stage, will live for a maximum of two hundred years and have the ability to make their spirit take physical form. They are supermen, but they are only the second stage.


    "The third stage, one that I am only mentioning so you are able to recognise and not offend them, is the ?Heaven? stage. These men and women are ten times stronger than any Saint, they can live for up to four hundred years and gain the ability to fly. Legendary heroes cower in fear at the mere presence of a Heaven stage individual, so be careful who you affront when climbing the tower."


    The people in the room were gob-smacked. Tony had covered these godly beings like they were nothing serious, and only worth mentioning because of the weak people in front of him. He was truly blas¨¦ about the whole affair. After letting the room mull over the idea of these people for a minute he spoke again. ¡°So, now you know what your aim in the tower is I can explain how you get the power to reach those peaks.¡± He paused and held up his small grey, fur covered hand and wisps of what looked like blue smoke began spinning around it. The smoke twirled and made various shapes then finally retreated back inside Tony. ¡°That is mana. Controlling your own mana is a matter of will, but to produce it you first have to draw it from the world around you. There are three methods to taught to people to suck in mana from their surroundings. First there is ?The Spiral Breath Formation?, which is the method I will be teaching you, it is practised most often by the Absolution and Caesar clans, and is a painless and pure way to absorb energy. ?The Stolen Life Formation? and the ?The Inner Flame Formation? are the two other forms, however I do not practice these so cannot tell you much about them.¡±


    The moment Tony mentioned ?The Inner Flame Formation? it triggered a memory of Laurence¡¯s. He remembered coming across that in his book and could remember it quite clearly. He immediately sat in the lotus position with both hands extended forward, with his palms up and breathed in through his nose. The air and energy collected in his chest at which point he forced it to reach the furthest corners in his body. Once the energy had reached his extremities he breathed all the air still in his lungs out explosively and quickly breathed in again. The mana contracted back to his diaphragm but more poured on top of it before it could escape.


    Laurence could feel the energy in his body building up with every breath. His body devoured the mana with a voracity that could not be matched and held on to it for as long as it could. The process said to keep breathing like this until the ball of mana within sank to the level of the navel and formed a mana reservoir, so Laurence did. Normally when you do any breathing method you take in maybe 10% of the mana in the air but Laurence was taking in all of it. His body was like that of a starving man¡¯s and it could not let go of any of it, which gave Laurence a feeling of euphoria. The method continued and the ball of mana sank lower and lower, until finally it congealed and began forming a shape. The red book said that the shape of the mana reservoir was the shape of a person''s spirit and that at each stage of growth the spirit would become more extravagant.


    Laurence was very excited to see what the shape of his soul was. He had tried to perform the formation several times during his first reading of the book but every time it had failed. He was quite dejected at the time and eventually gave up, but now he realised there must have been another factor in him failing. With each breath he felt his spirit filing with mana and taking form. Breath after breath after breath the mana sank to his navel until finally the spirit completed its shape. It was that hammer on his red book, shaped like something between a war hammer and an oversized smith''s hammer and it looked like it was made of wrought iron. To Laurence it was wonderful, but then to him interesting things always were.


    He slowly began opening his eyes and was surprised to see everyone looking at him. Tony looked happily at Laurence as if confirming something and then continued on with his lecture. "... And that is what happens when someone completely fills up their mana reservoir in one go. It usually only happens when you are used to a lot of mana and you''re forming your spirit or your reservoir is completely emptied. It doesn''t happen very often because in a battle people seeing where you are by the fact that your mana is visible is a problem."


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.Laurence zoned out again as he noticed something going on with his spirit. He saw the spirit vibrate and then ignite into flames. From what he read in the book he had learned he had to fan the flames with mana or he knew they would go out and not come back. He used his strange breathing pattern again and felt the flames becoming more and more permanent, at the same time his spirit felt more and more solid. Finally he felt a qualitative change in both the flame and his hammer. Rather than being made of wrought iron it was now made of black steel, while the flames themselves were bright blue and producing electrical sparks. Laurence couldn''t help but feel excited because that flame meant he could refine metals and remove impurities from materials with ease.


    The entire process of igniting his spirit took less than ten breaths but the moment he finished his eyes shone with an even greater vigour. He could feel the flow of mana in the area very clearly but wanted to know if he could see it, so he opened his eyes once again. This time not everyone was looking at him but the world itself seemed so much richer with colour. A couple of people were furtively glancing at him every-so-often but most people were paying attention to Tony instead.


    "... Finally we come to the uses of mana." He said as Laurence began paying attention again. "There are two major uses for magic amongst ?The Bookless?, namely reinforcing your attacks and your defence. Magic as you might know it is the domain of the ?Book of Chaos?, so if you wish to summon whirlwinds or fire lightning from your fingertips then affiliate yourself with an elemental clan. Most people just channel their mana into their muscles or their weapons to fight. It''s not as flashy as cutting someone up with the wind, but it''s far more practical." Tony pulled a meter cube of stone out of thin air and said, "This is what happens when a person who has infused mana into their fists punches granite." He then proceeded to take a single swing at the block. His fist did not even touch the block but forced a shock wave to impact the block instead. The moment the shock wave came into contact with the block there was a bang like a cannon blast and the entire block turned to dust.


    "Of course this is with years of training." Tony continued. "Simply put, mana allows your body to go above and beyond its normal capabilities, and with a fine grasp of control over you can even fight against people and creatures of a higher stage than you."


    Laurence could see that Tony was lying. It was not a true lie, but a half-lie. Yes, Laurence had no doubt that infusing your body with mana would make you stronger, but that is not what Tony did to destroy the rock. Instead he had flung a super-fine net made of mana over the stone and torn it to pieces. It made Laurence wonder what else someone could do with mana if they had enough control, and how he could go about finding out.


    The lesson eventually came to a close as Tony told people to try and use the formation that they had been taught. Most would not succeed, but perhaps one would do well enough to pass before the rest of the children came and scared off the older challengers. For the most part this stage of Babel was luck based. According to ?Eman Kaent?, a famous scholar in the tower, everyone had the capability to climb the tower, but most people did not have the perseverance to reach even the first stage. This reduced those who climbed the tower to one of three groups, the talented, the hard working and the lucky. Shortly before his death he also said "I would rather be lucky than good." before dying to a scorpion sting in his sleep. It turns out he was not one of the lucky.


    Laurence walked up to Tony at the end of the lesson with a confused look on his face. For the last hour he had been trying summon his spirit by he seemed to fail every time. No matter what he did he could not work out how to get his spirit''s physical form to appear, eventually he caved. It turned out Laurence was missing one thing, a name for his spirit. Spirits were temperamental and would only answer to the name they were given, so Laurence racked his brain for a name. Eventually he decided to call the hammer ?Jormugand? after Gudrun''s spear in Gudrun and Selene. He called its name and felt a rumble in the surrounding area as his spirit took form. It began as a facula in Laurence''s hand but quickly spread to form the long shaft and large head that he recognised contained his mana reservoir. Finally, as the hammer completed, it ignited with that strange sparking flame culminating at the blade-tip capping the shaft of the hammer. It was imposing, as tall as Laurence and as he began swinging it, it seemed weightless in his hands.


    The young boy smiled as he looked at his spirit and said "I would like to take the test now."


    "Child, you know you have already succeeded, why put up the act?" Tony replied, walking back to the area near the door.


    "Simple. I want to know if I can actually pass. There might be some reason why I fail, and if there is I want to see it." Knowledge was everything to Laurence. All the things he did were done because he wanted to know something new, it was almost an addiction to him. He had to find out what was beyond that next hill or round that next turn compulsively. So like all the others who would come after him, he walked forward and padded through that odd point in space with the only difference being his mana reservoir filled up quicker.


    Tony handed Laurence a small bag and held his right hand for a moment. Once he let go there was a sun-like pattern on his hands with the number 0 in the centre. "In that bag there are your rewards for completing the first test, a ?pointer stone? that leads you to the location of the next test room and 1 ?copper shard? with 20 ?stone shards?. Shards are the currency on all floors of the tower, and so you get a sense of scale, 1 stone shard is worth about a loaf of low quality bread. 100 stone shards to a single copper one, and the average farm-hand''s wage is 4 copper shards 50 stone every year." The man-dog gestured to the stairs, "Now go. You have thirty days to get to the next testing room. If you fail then you will have to wait for sixty to take the test again."


    With that the small boy ran up the stairs and disappeared into Babel. As Tony walked away all he could do was wish the boy good luck and wonder if he would be caught up in the turbulence to come. It was more likely than not.

 Chapter 5: The Second Golden Child

    "Cleopatra Tiberian Ignis, please come up to the dais." Said the old woman in white. She held her withered hand high and a young girl in blue silk robes came forward. ¡°Despite the nature of your birth, you have risen above the others of your age, and are declared one of the golden children of the ?Book of Chaos?. Congratulations, you will be leaving to enter Babel in two days.¡± This was brilliant news for Cleo. She would no longer be held as an outcast in her clan and considered as a ¡®branch¡¯ child that should not exist. Through her own hard work she could raise her head high and tell the world she was the best of her age.


    She did not. As usual, Cleo took the parchment declaring herself the golden child and walked off, tripping over her long ceremonial robes as she left. Grace might come to her in time but it was not one of her current gifts. She moved the parchment into her storage bracelet, a lot of people would not like the fact that she was the first child of the new generation to complete the reading, so her putting it into a storage dimension made sure it was safe. Life in the ?Ignis? clan had not been easy for Cleo, but then how could it be if you had been told from a very young age that you should have never been born.


    Her father had long since left, and her mother she never knew. She was alone in a clan of her family and that made it so much worse. Her peers called her names and picked on her for being the fourth child, her grandparents barely noticed her, even though she had soared above the other children in mastery of fire and wind. These things angered her, yet she could do nothing about it. She was just a child, now an important child to the clan, but a child nonetheless. Still, she would be able to meet people who had no idea about her past and her family in the tower. She thought with glee about making some real friends.


    While thinking about the chance of friends a group of other children walked by. One stuck his leg out and tripped her over, making Cleo fall in the dirt. She fell on her face as she came out of her wishful stupor and the other children ran off laughing. The older children had always bullied her, even now there was no exception. All she could do was brush off her dress and continue on with her mission, while her bottom lip dripped blood the same colour as her hair.


    ¡°Princess! What happened to your face?¡± Cleo was greeted by a warm voice as she walked through the door to the clan¡¯s ?Treasure Pavilion?. The only person who treated her with any real sort of care was her third brother, Iain, who was trusted to watch over the treasure pavilion. The clan were strict about a lot of things, but at least in public they believed the sins of the father were not the sins of the son. He frowned, ¡°Do you know who did this? Because I will make them pay for it if you want me to.¡±


    ¡°No brother, it¡¯s fine. I''ve learned that your support can just make things worse for me in the long run. I am here to pick up gear for climbing up the tower anyway, so what can you give me?¡±


    Iain pushed his chestnut fringe back and thought for a few seconds before saying ¡°I have a few things I can let you get, namely a weapon, a shielding ?talisman? and a ?regeneration bead?. The quality is up to you to pick, just remember that each item in here has a history, and worse some have personalities.¡±


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    ¡°I¡¯ll remember.¡± Cleo began perusing the items that she could choose. Most things in the pavilion were separated into three categories; Offensive, Defensive and Support Artefacts. The most significant choice for Cleo was the first, because she was not limited by anything other than her own rank with the weapon. A true challenger was strong with a weapon that could cope with their strength, but having a stronger weapon than your tier did not make you stronger. It simply meant you could not pull out everything from your weapon.


    The young girl walked through the hall of weapons, looking at each of them, from the strange ?Immortal? tier weapons to the simple Earth tier ones. She saw the legendary spear ?Mercury?, which made you look like you were melting when using it. She found a ?Baleful Blade?, which made people forget about the person who cut them. She even saw the whip Dominance which gave the user pleasure whenever it caused harm.


    Finally she came across what she was looking for. A simple top quality Saint dagger with the ability to return to its owner, called ?Spite?. It had one previous owner and was new compared to the rest of the weapons in the pavilion. She quickly bound it by infusing it with mana and then putting a drop of her blood on it and moved on to her defence and support. The talisman would protect her from most injuries and those it couldn''t would either kill her or be healed by her bead. These two were simple to pick, she just grabbed the highest quality items from each of her choices and went back to see her brother.


    ¡°You got everything you need, Princess?¡± He said.


    ¡°Yeah. Spite and top tier talisman with a top tier bead. I¡¯ll be leaving soon, will you come and see me off?¡± Cleo was nervous, Iain was the only person who she actually cared about in her family, so his view of her was pivotal to her.


    ¡°Interesting choice sis. Of course I¡¯ll be there. I won¡¯t be able to stay for long, but I will be there.¡±


    And with that she walked out of the pavilion to prepare for witnessing the rest of the world.

 Chapter 6: Primeval

    The first thing that struck Laurence as he arrived on the new floor was the heat. Humid, bitter heat permeated everything in the surroundings and made breathing hard. Because of the heat and light plants seemed to thrive. All the plants in this place were massive, with trees reaching hundreds of meters into the air. The sun beat down on Laurence¡¯s head while he stood on a plateau looking over the forest. The forest was loud with the sounds of animals eating, killing and mating with each other, often in that order. It was incredible to the young boy. Sure, he had lived in a village from the day he had been born and was used to the sounds of wildlife, but this was so much more. The giant forest in front of Laurence was bursting with life and sound.


    He climbed down to ground level and pulled out the pointer stone. It didn''t seem like the money he had been given would be much use to him, but the stone pointed in the direction of the next entrance. The stone fit in the palm of his small hand and it immediately lit up once it was flat. An arrow formed on its shiny black surface with the number ten underneath it. Whether that meant that the journey would take minutes, miles, hours or days he had no idea. All he could do was walk in the direction the stone told him and find out.


    The first day was uneventful, but every sight blew Laurence away. He saw nature in its purest form out here, rough, brutal and chaotic. Yet it did not detract from the beauty he saw in it all, even when he saw a giant preying mantis tear a bird twice its size in half and begin eating its guts he was not dissuaded. The vibrancy of life and the suddenness of death were all in plain view here, and to the young boy it could not be more incredible.


    Near the end of the first day Laurence stopped by a white cliff near a large lake that was thriving with life. He set up camp and even fished out some food to eat with a hastily made fishing rod. While Laurence ate the fish he noticed that the bones of this fish were oddly shaped and very tough. They were perfect for using as needles for sewing and he wanted to record where he found them for future reference, but he had nothing to draw or write on. He pulled out the red book and looked at the second section for a while, then flicked through the first until he had an idea.


    The next morning he spent a little time hunting for a furred animal and eventually found one. His target was a pair of small ferret-like creatures that were deadlocked over something. Grabbing two stones, he hurled them at both ferrets without modulating his strength. It came as a surprise to both him and the ferrets when his stones shot out of his hands like they were flung from a catapult and collided with his target''s skulls, crushing them instantly. He was not used to his own strength now he had become a saint, but at seven years of age he was nothing if not adaptable. He grabbed the two carcasses and went back to his impromptu camp, and prepared for the process of creation.


    Some of the process was new to Laurence, but the majority of it was something he had done before in one form or another. The first was make leather and vellum, then sew a book together from wood, leather, vellum and string. While he had never made a book before, he could cut wood and make leather easily. Vellum was harder, he knew the process but had never actually tried it before, so he would be experimenting.


    He pulled out two boxes from his bag of holding. They had similar runes on them for storage and stability as his bag did, but there was a large space after that with incomplete runes on them. Laurence knew that if an object was not made with good enough quality materials then it would not be able to handle the runes and the power they represented. In the case of this happening the object would simply crumble to dust. To counteract this a crafter could put caveats on runes like ¡®single person¡¯, ¡®less than 1 meter¡¯ or more commonly ¡®only objects¡¯. These caveats drastically increase the lasting power of objects with them on, and were most often used for small boxes to carry large amounts of perishable goods with the rune for ¡®reduces time¡¯, which would allow the perishable goods to last longer. The added bonus of this was that bacterium that would make the food decay and any parasites living in the food would also be removed, which meant that people would often use these tools to clean the perishables of any unwanted extras.


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    Laurence pulled out the knife from his bag and then had a thought. He put the knife back and began pulling a small amount of mana from his reservoir, shaping it into a knife edge at the tip of his finger. He then flattened the point, and used the chisel shaped mana-blade to finish the glyph on the first box. These glyphs represented ¡®slow down time¡¯ with the caveat ¡®only objects¡¯ and ¡®20x¡¯. Simply put, if anything was in that box it would age at one twentieth of its normal rate which was still an incredible feat of magic power. Laurence could tell immediately that the box would last a matter of weeks before it would be destroyed by the power it contained, but that was long enough. He proceeded to put the carcasses in the box and store it back in his bag.


    Looking around he knew he needed three things if he was going to complete this properly; wood, quicklime and water. Time was also a necessity, but he was only nine days away from the tower. His idea was more important. Laurence stopped and realised that he might have everything he needed right in front of him. He walked up to the white cliffs and saw they were made of limestone. Checking the quality of the limestone he found he could get a fair amount of dust easily, so he got everything made and began his work.


    Tanning hides and making vellum is not a hard process, but it is a time consuming one, so Laurence made his second box one that speeds up time for things inside it. For whatever reason this caused more stress on the box and he surmised the materials would only last for two or three days. Long enough for his creation to come to fruition. He set down the materials, soaked the skins for about two and a half hours in the speed up box, then cleared all the flesh off the skin and began by cleaning everything with a calcium bath. This was one of the longest parts of the process, so he filled the ¡®slow down box¡¯ with water and prepared to use that later. He also grabbed a few more fish for the road, slung them over his back and walked off towards the tower with his ¡®speed up box¡¯ processing away in his little bag.


    After about four hours Laurence stopped by a small brook and decided to test whether he would need gloves to handle materials or if he could just sheathe his hands in mana. He pulled the skins out of the bath and proceeded to clean one of them off with water. Once it was thoroughly clean he pinned down one side and made the surface of his arm perfectly smooth, then split the flesh off of the hide. He put the two skins back into the calcium bath and continued on his way. It was beginning to get quite late so he momentarily stopped to pull both hides out from the lime bath and clean them again with some of his stored water. He then began looking for a new place to set up camp.


    After about fifteen minutes of hunting he heard a series of roars and a yelp. Nearby there was a fight between creatures and Laurence had to see it. When he got to the clearing that the fight was taking place in, he saw a small wolf cub desperately fighting for its life against a lizard almost ten times its size. The poor beast was being played with by its crocodilian captor and this angered Laurence. He could deal with animals killing and mating with each other because it was just what happened but his mother had always told him two things. One, torture is wrong. It harms the torturer as much as the victim. And two, never play with your food. This reptile was doing both of those things, so without even a moment¡¯s thought Laurence jumped in, summoned his hammer and thrust the spearhead straight through the crocodile¡¯s brain. He swooped over the wolf cub that was on its last legs and picked it up, looking for a safe place to hide. The sun set during his search, and it was almost completely gone by the time he found a hollow at the base of a large tree to nest in. The young boy built a low fire and quickly set the wolf up in a stable position. He left some meat and some water for the cub to eat and then said ¡°I''m going to look for some herbs to help you. It¡¯s night time now and it will be easier for me to find them in the dark. Once I''m back I¡¯ll be able to fix you up easily.¡±


    He dropped off the two boxes, spent a few seconds sorting out the hides and preparing them for their next step and then unsummoned his hammer and walked out into the night.

 Chapter 7: The Hunt

    "Remember son, the easiest way to find most plants for healing is by looking at night. The plants that have medicinal properties are bio-luminescent, they glow."


    Laurence could remember his father instructing him on the process of healing. He was nowhere near as gifted in the study as either of his parents, but his expertise lay in other fields. The young boy did have enough knowledge to get by though. He knew he needed to find some red veined Iconis Roses at the very least, or the poor wolf cub would bleed out before the day was up. Blue leaved Cillin Root would stop the wounds from getting infected and white Silkweed would just speed everything along greatly. If there were white budded ?Aguara Leaves? around then it would speed up the small beast''s recovery as that plant allowed for increased blood production. Aguara leaves were difficult for Laurence to use though, his father had often said that too much of any medicine would be dangerous, and Aguara was the best example of this. If a doctor used more than necessary it would cause the patient''s veins to expand and eventually explode from over filling them with blood.


    He searched without any sort of torch, only going towards luminescent spots and looking at what he found. After about fifteen minutes Laurence had only found Silkweed, but that was better than nothing. He knew Iconis Roses were hard to find but comparatively common, so he hoped it was only a matter of time before they were pasted upon the wounds of the wolf. He dug up the roots using a shovel shaped out of mana, each time he reshaped his mana it became easier to do so he thought the simplest way to become proficient was just use it instead of any normal tool. It also meant he didn''t have to clean the tools afterwards to keep them in good shape. Once he finished digging up the roots he felt a few drops of liquid on his head and realised he should probably get moving before it began raining.


    Little did Laurence know that for the last ten minutes he had been hunted by a monster. The creature had come across the young boy as he was looking for something inconsequential. It followed him round the forest, always keeping just out of the way. It was waiting for the perfect moment to strike and eat the boy.


    It called itself Garral, and it was an apex predator in this jungle. It knew how to kill creatures and get food that it should not be able to, and had long since recognised the tattoo of the Challengers. It knew they were hard to kill, but in its one hundred and thirty years of hunting not one had escaped. The rain came down and Garral decided to get closer, soon it would try its standard lure and consume the child.


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    When it first came across the boy it was wary. It thought perhaps the child was bait to catch Garral finally. It was not the only smart hunter in the jungle, but it was the oldest. It had not got where it was by being stupid. It decided to spread its awareness out and when it found out that it was the only other large creature in the nearby area. It climbed down the tree it was perched in and began the final stage of its hunt.


    Laurence finally decided to pull out his red book and have a look for the roses on the map. Since he made the map he had discovered that he could zoom in and out to either get more detail on the local area or see the area in a larger scale. He expanded the map and finally spotted some roses, only half a kilometre away. He was about to shut the book when he saw the words ''?Garral - Royal Orik?'' heading towards him. He looked at the dot for a few seconds and then closed the book, wondering what an Orik was.


    He began walking towards the roses with his book in hand, occasionally checking the map to make sure the creature continued to follow him. He changed directions a few times and finally decided that the creature was probably hunting him. The boy ran towards the roses at full pelt and watched as the dot followed him at a good pace, keeping up to his Saint level speed. In the blink of an eye, Laurence had reached the roses and began harvesting them as fast as he could without damaging the plants. If it was not for his mana formed objects he could not have done it anywhere near as quickly as he did.


    He put the roses in his bag of holding when the creature finally caught up. The entire process of reaching the plants and harvesting them had taken less than ten seconds, but the creature covered almost a whole kilometre in that time. Laurence oriented himself towards the hollow where the wolf was and then put away his book as the Orik arrived.


    A profoundly hideous creature walked out of the foliage towards Laurence. It was almost two metres tall hunched over like it was, with a face that was part pig, part dog and part bear. It was furred all over and exuded an aura of violence about it that could only be formed from cultivating in the direction of Death and Destruction. A gobbet of drool dripped down its jaw, past its massive tusks, getting lost in the steadily worsening rain.


    There was a crash of thunder and a flash of lightning as the Orik opened its mouth revealing filthy yellow fangs. Its guttural voice could be heard even above the thunder. "Hello little boy, shall we play a game?"

 Chapter 8: The Lupe Deception

    Cleo sat in the common room, swinging her feet beneath the chair she was seated on. As usual she was alone. When she and the other two golden children of the Ignis clan had arrived they immediately notified everyone that she was persona-non-grata, and everyone quickly stopped showing any form of friendliness towards her. All golden children knew what being a fourth child in one of the clans of Chaos meant.


    That said, she was not the only child exiled by the rest. There was one other child who no one would go near, simply because he was so creepy. His name was Peter and he was obsessed with the ?The Book of Death?. He was an odd looking boy with sunken blue eyes and light brown hair, people said he looked like a ghoul and his almost translucent skin did not dissuade their views. The other children felt uncomfortable whenever he was around so they steered clear of him even more than of Cleo. It made her happy to think that she was not the worst off here.


    The children had been told that all participants would be taken to the testing and instruction room early next morning. Including the thirty six golden children there would be around ten thousand people in this particular class. It was the biggest class in weeks so Cleo hoped she would meet someone who would not snub her based on what her peers said about her.


    She looked around the room at the children there. Some were playing, some were practising their family martial arts and a few were reading the books they had been leant. None were willing to even acknowledge Cleo was there, so in the end she decided to go and explore the place she was in.


    "I guess miss never-born is too good to be in our presence!" Sniped a girl from the ?Briar? clan called Rose. She was by far the worst person to Cleo out of all the other children. For some reason Cleo irritated her.


    "Ahh Rose, please caress my ear drums with your melodious voice." Said Peter, interrupting Rose. His voice was sickly and it felt like it stained anything it mentioned. "You sound so pretty I just want to cut your vocal chords out and keep them in a jar, just for me." Rose shuddered and shut up, not even daring to look at the boy who had just stood up to her. The most subtle reason for people not liking Peter was that he did not blink often enough. Everything about him was just odd.


    Cleo took the chance given to her by Peter to leave the area and explore. The domain was an odd one, everywhere was a sort of grey white that was easy upon the eye. It stretched for as far as the eye could see in either direction, but Cleo was not sure if that was an optical illusion or actuality. She walked around the hallways for a while, making sure to remember how many steps she had taken and came across several smaller rooms. Looking in each room she found they were in various states of disrepair, but each one was fundamentally exactly the same. She was looking into a room without any books in when she heard someone taking. They were being quite loud but Cleo was not supposed to be where she was so it made sense that her target was not aware of their volume.


    "Of course I remember the plan Declan. I made it with you remember? You do not need to lecture me on the intricacies of a two thousand year man-hunt gone awry." The voice sounded quite stressed but Cleo recognised it as Tony, the first ?Adjudicator? in the tower.


    "Who are they hunting?" Thought Cleo as she tried to edge closer to the room. This had piqued her interest for the first time since she had been surrounded by the other children.


    "I have been waiting too long for this." said the second voice. "We messed up with the Hephaista clan, so this next arrangement must come off exactly as planned." It was a gravelly voice, similar to Tony''s but deeper. Cleo thought they might be from the same clan as they pronounced things in the same way.


    "Don''t worry." Said Tony, "I have men placed on every rest floor. They are checking the compiled stories and paths of the passers-by. Soon someone will find him and we will know within two years." He paused as if waiting for something and then continued, "I also bribed the Adjudicator for the fourth floor. One person in three will be going on the route nearby where we last heard about him. There should be enough failure and variance that no one gets suspicious."


    "Good. Once we find him we can begin enacting phase three through to five. Remember Tony, this is all for the clan. For the Lupe."


    "For two thousand years hard work and for the clan. For the Lupe."


    Cleo felt a pulse of magical energy and then realised something, Tony was an immortal, which meant he might know she was there, or would soon. She pulled back quietly, hoping that the urban legend about immortal super-hearing was just that, an urban legend. She pulled back as quiet as a mouse, hoping that the Lupe would not hear her. After about two minutes of creeping away Cleo assumed she was clear of him and began walking briskly back to her bed space.


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    She could not believe she had gotten away, it was incredible to her that Tony had not heard her heart because it was beating so loudly. She did not feel clear until she actually reached her bed and crawled under the covers with some of her favourite books. She had to tell someone about the plot, mainly because it had something to do with the fallen Hephaista clan, but no one would accept her words as truth. Perhaps there would be a person who she could tell about the plot, about Declan Lupe and his plans to help ?the Lupe clan?. It was then that it dawned on Cleo that she did not actually know much about the plot. She knew there was one, and that it had involved the Hephaista clan, perhaps leading to the fall of the clan in general. She also knew that there were five stages to the plan, and that something went wrong with stage one. But in all honesty she had no idea about the plan at all.


    The night went by uneventfully and Cleo went to the testing area as sandy eyed as the rest of the children. Most of them had stayed awake until they literally could not stay awake any more. Generally speaking golden children were spoiled, but they were still young and needed sleep. Golden children may have been the most important and talented children in the clans, but each one was only allowed to become a Saint in the first room of Babel. It was said that if the children did this then they would become far more powerful than they would by just forming their mana reservoirs in the clan''s personal realm.


    As usual Tony set up shop in the big hall. It was absolutely packed with participants but the thirty six golden children were seated in the front. Tony began his usual spiel about the dangers and nature of the tower. At the point where he began discussing mana and the breathing techniques all the children began pulling in as much mana as they could handle. All three breathing techniques were used and soon enough there were bursts of light from across the front row as each successive child achieved sainthood. There was a faint outline of each child¡¯s mana reservoir floating above their head, some wings, forms of nature, a few armours, and some weapons. Each one an odd or different shape, but no bizarre or archaic manifestations.


    As they completely filled their mana reservoir, some got up and left, while about ten children stayed behind and let their inner flames ignite. Once that happened they, including Cleo, left the testing area with ease. There was a sigh amongst the crowd after they left because of how easily almost forty children put all the other challengers, most of whom were adults, to shame. It was a truly eye opening experience for some people there who had been trying for months that children, none older than eight, would pass in moments where they failed.


    Cleo was happy, she was one of the fair few who had the chance to cultivate an ?Inner Heavenly Flame?. Less than thirty percent of all saints gained a heavenly flame and it was a true gift, because there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to who the flames were given to. She examined the flame as she walked up the long and winding staircase to the exit. It was a pure flame, a white flame, the one gifted to chaos practitioners. The flame would allow Cleo to control the temperature and humidity of her spells to much greater effect.


    Finally Cleo arrived on the first floor. Below her stood a forest stretching miles both in height and in length. The forest was truly primeval. The young girl could hear sounds of animals fighting, dying and mating as she made her way towards where her pointer stone showed her.


    She walked all day, avoiding as much as she could. Anything that truly stood out would likely present her to more of her peers, which was something she would rather avoid. Near the end of the day she found a camp site. The area looked like it had not been used in a while and that the creator of the camp left in a hurry. Perhaps there were some unseen dangers hiding in the shadows of this great forest, just waiting to come out and eat up a small girl. Cleo decided to set up camp anyway.


    The night passed by rather uneventfully, the jungle stayed loud and Cleo did not get much sleep, but she was fine the next morning. Once she had fed herself with the fish in the lake next to her, she washed, dressed and moved into the thicker parts of the jungle, following the path of the camp site¡¯s previous tenant.


    After about four hours she came across a large open area within the trees. It looked like some time back someone or something had become very angry with something they were hunting and tried to destroy all the trees between them and it. She followed the destruction and by sundown it had led to the hollow of a tree. All that was inside the tree was another camp site and an incredibly mangled skeleton.

 Chapter 9: Saint Versus Saint

    Laurence ran. He had never run so hard in his life, but then his life had never really been in danger before. The beast had given him a small head start but was hot on his tail the entire time. It enjoyed the chase and hoped that the young boy would lead it to even more tasty flesh.


    Garral came close to cutting the boy several times, but in every instance he managed to duck, dodge or turn at just the right time to avoid injury. It seemed like the chase was coming to a close when Laurence was faced with a wall of brush, far too thick for him to push through and too tall for him to jump over. He looked behind and saw that the orik was gaining and would be upon him in a fraction of a second, so as the beast swung its claws at his head he ducked, grabbed the beast by the calves and propelled himself back through the creature¡¯s legs the way he came.


    Garral screamed in rage as it was thwarted. The orik turned around as Laurence rolled into a sprint and sped away. It went on all fours and began chasing once again. This child was giving the hunter far more trouble than it was expecting, and it hated him for it. Soon the energy it expended would not be worth the meat on his bones, but it could not stop the hunt. Its pride was now at stake.


    Laurence had a plan. He knew the beast was about as powerful as him, so its bones and hide must be very tough. He wanted the beast¡¯s body to make armour, but he had to be in the right situation to get it. The little wolf was still slowly dying, so Laurence intended to finish things in that hollow. Either he would die, or the orik would.


    The creature chased, no longer caring about subtlety or the enjoyment of the hunt. It felt like it was being played with and that meant the boy had to die. Garral channelled its mana into its limbs as it ran, quickly outdoing its old speed and busting through foliage in the way. Its speed caused so much friction that the tips of the orik¡¯s hair caught fire and the beast began to look more like a meteorite than an animal. The trees caught fire and smouldered as it went past, but were quickly put out again by the increasingly heavy rain. A thick trail of smoke followed the two saints in their wake, chasing off most of the lesser creatures in the area.


    Laurence closed in on the hollow where his wolf patient lay, and the beast closed in on him. One hundred meters, eighty meters, fifty meters, as they reached ten meters distance from each other Laurence reached the inside of the tree. Everything clicked into place as Laurence attained the situation he wanted. He cancelled as much forward momentum as he could and spun to face Garral as it entered the tree. Without stopping for a moment he yelled "Jormungand!¡± and his spirit weapon was summoned into his hands. He thrust forwards towards Garral¡¯s face and let his hands slip down to the base of his hammer. Garral was trapped, it could not halt its movement and could not dodge because it was stuck in the doorway. It screamed as it saw the blade at the top of that odd hammer head towards its eye and pierce through into its brain.


    The spear dissipated and the corpse¡¯s momentum slowed, but not before smashing into the young boy and sending him flying. There was a crack and Laurence let out a scream of pain as his arm bent backwards and broke. He struggled up and looked at his thoroughly broken left arm. The bone was still inside the flesh but the arm was bending the wrong way at the elbow and had broken clean in two in the forearm, Laurence could also feel something wrong with his wrist. It would be tough to do anything with it but he had to save the wolf before he could worry about his own injury. He honestly felt lucky he had not been hurt more.


    He grabbed a pestle and mortar from his bag and trapped it between his legs. Not having the use of one hand meant it would be harder to stabilise things, but not impossible. Pulling out the silkweed he had found he put most of it in the bowl and began chewing on some too. Silkweed was useful for two reasons, first it boosted the healing factor of any herbal remedy it was part of, and second it had a numbing agent in it that worked incredibly as a painkiller. He chewed and swallowed the juicy pulp he had created and he began to be able to focus on something other than his arm. Laurence thanked his father for drilling all the information about healing into his head, it was probably going to save his life. He quickly made a blade of mana and cut off the ruined cloth smock he had been wearing since he left home and emptied his bag onto it.


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    Surveying his choices he sighed. He really had not brought as much with him as he would have liked. All that was in front of him was twenty feet of rope, two books, two large glad vials filled with tannin, five empty glass vials, a pestle and mortar, a block of limestone, a box full of water, ten fish bone needles, a ball of silk string, a medicinal filter strainer, some wood and a knife. It would just have to do.


    Laurence ground up the silkweed and added a small amount of water to turn it into a thin paste, then filled each vial to the halfway point. He quickly washed out the bowl and began pulping the roses. Once they were a paste he filled the bowl with water and brought out his inner flame to bring the bowl to a boil. When the water was happily boiling he began stirring it with a bar of mana until the fluid was completely blue and smooth. Finally he slowly poured the blue fluid into each vial, through the filter. Once all five bottles were filled with the mixture Laurence mixed them until each tube was full of a thick blue goop. Laurence''s father had called this fluid ?Malmas Tincture?, and had said it was one of the ?Genesis Mixtures? which form the basis of all healing potions.


    He poured the fluid over each one of the numerous wounds on the young wolf and began sewing up each large or deep wound. The small wounds would be healed by just the malmas tincture but the larger ones needed more help. Thanks to the tincture the areas around the injuries were numbed and so the wolf cub struggled a lot less than it would have. Each wound was sewed up with less skill and took longer than Laurence would like, but it was the best he could do at the moment. Once he had finished sewing up the wolf he washed its fur and turned to his own wound.


    He pulled his arm near and winced as two of the bones grated against each other. Unfortunately he would have to cause himself a lot of pain to set the bone properly. He took off his leather boots and stuck one in his mouth, even with a painkiller in his system this was going to hurt and Laurence did not want to bite off his own tongue.


    Laurence split one block of wood into two thin planks that were about the same length as his arm with a mana blade. He then bit down hard and let out a whimper as he moved all the bones back in place. His eyes watered and made it hard to see but he quickly managed to get everything back where it should be. Finally the arm was ready to be set, so Laurence placed the splints, tore up his smock and wrapped it round his arm like a bandage. He could only barely hold it in place with the fingers of his broken arm, and by this point it was excruciatingly painful.


    Laurence stood up and walked over to the side of the tree. Despite it having a comfortable hole in its base the tree itself was still thriving, so Laurence made an incision into the bark with a mana blade and made an impromptu binding agent to seal up his arm. With the last of his cloth the young boy made himself a sling to keep his arm steady.


    Laurence finally spat out his shoe and began chewing more of the silkweed. He had done almost everything he could, but he had one more touch for when the sap dried. Until then he needed sleep, but wanted to finish his work first. He grabbed the speed up box and filled it with a bottle of tannin and water, mixing with a paddle made of mana. Once it was prepared the boy stuck in the hide that he intended to turn into leather and left it.


    With the other hide Laurence made sure it was truly clean, then scraped off all the remaining flesh and hair. When it was pristine he used the needles, rope and two thick branches to stretch the hide and allow it to dry. The last thing Laurence did before he collapsed was examine his mana reservoir. Through day to day use of mana formed objects and feeding it into his broken arm to heal quicker it had only emptied the reservoir by a quarter. This astounded Laurence but he could not think much more about it, so he curled up next to the wolf and fell asleep.

 Chapter 10: Yun And The Codex

    In the morning Laurence awoke to his face being licked. The wolf cub was up and about, but most of the nastier wounds from the fight had yet to heal properly. It was still a little wobbly, but had eaten all of the meat that had been left for it and was now exploring a mutilated set of bones in the corner of the tree. Laurence sat up, being careful about his arm and looked at his handiwork. The leather was tanned and ready to be stretched, while the vellum was halfway done with stretching out. He was quite happy with how his creations were coming to fruition, but now needed a new top. His old smock was destroyed beyond repair so he needed some better or at least more intact clothes. After about twenty minutes of thought and perusing the red book, he decided that he was going to wait for the next test room to make himself some new armour.


    He ushered the wolf close to him and looked at his wounds. None were festering but Laurence washed them with water anyway just to make sure. As he finished cleaning he rubbed the head of the dog and noticed that his tattoo began spreading. It began duplicating, finally splitting and moving onto the wolf cub. As it moved it changed shape, on both its original host and new one. On Laurence the tattoo spread up his forearm and took the shape of a sigil base. It was a circle that seemed to have a nebula-like spiral coming out of it. It still had the character 1 on it, but now it took up far more space on his arm. On the wolf the star moved down to his paw and a small streak of red came out of a point. This streak moved over the body of the wolf, leaving a cloud-like pattern in its wake.


    The moment the tattoos stopped changing Laurence heard ¡°Brother¡± in the back of his head. It was not the word brother, but more the concept. The wolf cub looked up at the boy and licked him. ¡°Brother¡± He heard again.


    "Is that you, little wolf?¡± Said Laurence.


    ¡°Brother!¡± This time the concept held the feeling of happiness as the wolf cub nuzzled the boy, ticking him with his fur. Laurence laughed.


    ¡°Do you have a name little wolf?¡±


    The wolf looked at Laurence, it tilted its head and scrunched up its nose. He did not seem to understand what Laurence was asking. He simply licked Laurence¡¯s hand and sent him a happy sensation. Laurence frowned and then pointed at himself and said ¡°Laurence.¡± He tried to communicate in the same way as the wolf did and sent an image of himself with the sound. The wolf made a short whining sound in response and sent back the image of a small red cloud.


    "So is your name ¡®Yun¡¯?¡± Laurence tried to make the closest similar sound to the noise the wolf had made. It butted its head against his leg and barked, sending over that happy feeling again. ¡°I guess I got it to right.¡± Thought the young boy. He smiled as he seemed to have picked up a new friend, even though he was injured.


    For the rest of the day Laurence continued to work on his leather based projects, taking some time in the middle of the day to eat and then carve some healing and restoration runes on his cast. This way his arm would heal far quicker than it would, and if it was coupled with him infusing his arm with mana it would heal in no time at all.


    By late afternoon, with the use of the speed up box the leather and vellum was complete. Laurence took the materials he would need and began the second last stage of his pet project. Laurence cut the rest of his harvested wood so that he had two pieces that were two hands tall, two hands wide and about half a centimetre thick. He then split the vellum he had made into thin sheets and made sure there were seven pages that were about the same height and breadth as the blocks of wood. Next he cut the leather so it had a body that would wrap the two pieces of wood up snugly.


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    He took all his cut pieces and began compiling the book. After twenty minutes of hard one handed sewing he had finally completed the book itself. Throughout the process Laurence had been infusing mana into the pieces, so they were far more durable than they otherwise would have been, and that was what would allow for Laurence to succeed with his idea. On the first page Laurence inscribed a series of runes, combining caveats and various sigils, to make the book itself impervious to damage and self repairing. He then sealed the page into the book itself to prevent tampering. The second page would contain runes that would affect the general pages of the book, so Laurence began inscribing.


    In the end, the book had three attributes. Storing and recalling information, ¡®infinite¡¯ pages and illumination for night use. It was a masterwork, especially seeing as most of the creation was done by Laurence with a broken arm. It was also something Laurence was proud of. The final touch was to give the object a name, and Laurence found this stage far harder than the previous one. He thought up various names but nothing felt right. Finally he decided on ¡®The Absolution Codex¡¯. Laurence would be using it a journal to note all the interesting things on his journey, and so his first entry was that fish he found with the useful bones.


    After writing down all his sights and discoveries thus far, the boy and his wolf decided to call it a night and start traveling the next day. In the morning Laurence checked the corpse of the orik in his slow down box, put everything that he and Yun would need and said to the excitable wolf, ¡°Are you ready to go hunting?¡±


    Yun barked happily in response and immediately tried to get tangled in Laurence''s legs. The boy laughed, stepped over the foot and a half tall pup, and continued to follow the direction of his pointer stone. It led the two companions back the way Laurence had fled when he was being hunted by the orik, so they had an easy time for the first hour of travel. Once they reached the forest proper it was much slower going.


    They travelled during the day and slept safely during the night. Over the next eight days the two youths saw countless incredible sights. There was a waterfall in reverse, a small forest of trees with inner flames, and even a geyser that seemed to fire out small gemstones rather than water. Laurence would have liked to collect some of the gems, but they were shot out with such force that they could be considered lethal weapons. Laurence did not have a strong sense of self preservation, but he did have one when the stones shot a bird or of the sky from over four hundred meters up. The most exciting part of the journey for the two friends was seeing new things. Neither of them had been alive for that long, so almost everything they encountered was new to them. In the first three days of travel Laurence jotted down and sketched over fifty creatures and interesting plants. By the time they actually reached the tower, fourteen days after Laurence entered the first floor, almost two hundred articles had been written in the codex.


    Writing in the codex was not the only thing the two young challengers did over their journey. Laurence also showed Yun the red book and the wolf began ¡®reading¡¯ it. He also tried to teach Yun to more clearly understand language, rather than using sensation to express things. The latter was the far harder task. By the end of their time in Yun¡¯s birth plane he had picked up the rudiments of language. Not speaking in sentences or even having much of a vocabulary, but he knew how to express the important things like ¡®food¡¯, ¡®sleep¡¯ and ¡®Laurence¡¯. He couldn''t talk, but he was projecting words into Laurence''s head rather than rudimentary images that Laurence barely understood.


    They walked up to the large stone stele in the middle of the jungle and looked at it carefully. ¡°Are you ready, brother?¡± Said Laurence, and Yun just barked in the affirmative. The two youths walked up to the door and pushed it open, once again stepping into the void waiting just beyond.

 Chapter 11: Preamble

    The second test room had been designed to echo the floor it was on. The walls were formed from wooden roots and the entire area seemed to have been grown rather than built. It was beautiful, earthy, filled with green and browns, and most importantly completely unique. There was no natural light down in the roots of this building, but everywhere seemed to be lit by various glowing plants, giving the area a yellowish tint. At the entrance to the area was a black haired woman sitting on a chair formed from the roots in the surroundings. She was busy reading a book, but looked up when Laurence and Yun came through the doors. She paid little attention to the young boy and his dog, but just said ¡°The test will begin in three days. Your room is further down the hall. If you would like anything then just write it down and put it into the message box in your room. We on the second floor testing room will do our best to give you what you require.¡± She paused to turn a page on the book she was reading, ¡°Have a nice day.¡± With that she ignored the young boy, completely blocking him out until he left.


    Once he walked away she looked up again and thought ¡°A boy with a Tigerwolf cub. Has something happened to the Lupe clan?¡± Then returned to the book she was reading. To her it was more important than the nature of a child who would likely not be around for much longer.


    Laurence found an empty room near to the entrance. This place was far busier than the first floor testing room, filled with the sounds of vibrant life, growth and movement. Yun found a soft mat of moss to curl up on and just said to Laurence ¡°Hungry!¡± He was still a wolf of few words, but was incredibly intelligent and had an appetite to match the growing boy¡¯s. Laurence smiled. Not a single day had been mundane with his canine friend by his side. It was incredible fun for him to be around the wolf, and their journey had sped by to get to the second floor testing room. He looked around his room, trying to work out what each thing did. There was a place to store clothes, which Laurence was still lacking, a couple of beds constructed of the roots and bedded with thick moss, and a large bookcase next to a thin box on top of a post. The box had the word ¡®Request¡¯ written on it, so Laurence assumed that this was the box the woman at the front entrance had meant when she had told him about the message box.


    He grabbed a thin piece of paper and a charcoal stick and began writing on the paper. Please bring lots of food and a wooden box to room 2717. It is for a seven year old boy and a wolf cub. Then he put the paper in the box and waited. While waiting he finally pulled out the corpse of the Orik he fought in the forest. He noticed when fighting him that the creature¡¯s hide was incredibly strong, as were its claws and its bone. The creature was prime material for making armour. So Laurence began stripping the flesh off the bone and sorted all the produce into various sections. In the end he had a pile of flesh that needed tanning, bone that needed to be tied to leather, muscles that could be stretched and used as string or twine, and organs that were mostly useless. There were two pieces of the internal organs that had use however. The mana reservoir in the Orik had formed, and the heart which Laurence remembered could be powdered into a medicinal reagent.


    Once the creature had been fully dissected Laurence stored the usable materials in the slow down box, and began the tanning process for the hide. By the time he had prepared the hide for bathing the food had arrived. It was a massive plate of cooked meat, vegetables and fruit which the two devoured. Laurence was not one to waste any food, but Yun just ate the meat with incomparable speed. After they had the food Laurence began making the leather and thinking up how he wanted the clothing he would make to look.


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    Two days went by with great speed and by the third day Laurence had finished making himself some armour. His final costume was a rather imposing one, a thick green leather jerkin, bound in the centre with a series of bones that reinforced the body. Bones up either sleeve to act as a quick bracer and a hooded helm reinforced on the inside with the beast''s skull. He also had new boots, made from the same leather. The special thing about the clothes apart from the materials was that Laurence had tried something new on them. He had bound the pieces with blood and marked them with the runes for ¡®always fits¡¯ and the caveat ¡®only usable to binder¡¯. This would allow them to grow with the young boy, who otherwise would have likely grown out of them within the year.


    Laurence was rather proud of his new jerkin, especially as he had made a very small pocket dimension to keep the hood in when he was not using it. Long before he began making the clothing did he realise that if he had the hood out it could collect water, so he simply gave it the capability to appear when he went into battle. The jerkin and boots were both given self-restoration runes to restore themselves and keep them from breaking, but the were also given the rune for comfort which meant Laurence wouldn''t even have to wear them in. The clothing was without a doubt the best possible armour the boy could make at that stage, and when he wore the good it gave the image of a boy demon with two little horns and an obscured face.


    Yun was not particularly interested in the clothing Laurence wore, instead often requesting for the two of them to go hunting or to eat something. In the fourteen days that Laurence had known the wolf he had almost doubled in size, so his appetite had increased accordingly. Finally the day of the test rolled around and Laurence was prepared. The same young woman from the day they arrived knocked on their door and curtly told them to get a move on to the main arena for the test.


    Once they arrived they were told to sit in pairs. "Ladies and gentlemen, birds beasts and lizards, My name is Rachael Briar and I am your Adjudicator for this floor. There is nothing to learn on this floor but there is still a test. This is a test of capability, intelligence, speed and might. Now, I asked you to sit in pairs for a reason. If you are in an agreed pair I will group you together in this two man test.¡± She looked round as various members of her audience scampered to pair up before the test started. ¡°All done? Good. If you are alone still I will pair you up with someone at random. There are four thousand participants, so there are definitely enough people. The test itself will be a spin on a military training game called ¡®capture the flag¡¯. Each team starts with three flags, and they must have at least three flags at the end. Now we know this will cause some of you to act like a turtle and hide with your flags but there is an additional rule. You must have three different flags at the end of the match including your own.


    ¡°It is possible that all of you will pass, it is also possible for you all to fail. Generally speaking though, about half of you should pass the test. Now, there is only one other thing you should know, and that at the starting point for each pair there will be a pool that shows the location of all flags in the two kilometre area near you, and as you start around five hundred meters from any other person, you can see at least four other paid by looking at the pool. Now, unless anyone has any relevant questions we shall begin.¡±

 Chapter 12: The Three Flags

    They were teleported into a massive arena that seemed to have its own ecosystem. There were bird cries and the sounds of animals moving, hunting everywhere around Laurence and Yun. They quickly looked at the area they were in and assessed their options.


    ¡°What do you think we should do Yun?¡± Said Laurence as he looked at the pool in the middle of their starting area. He compared it to his book''s map, but was sorely disappointed with its capability to scan the surroundings. His book showed everything the pool showed and more, so the boy and his wolf had a great advantage over the other contestants.


    The wolf barked, giving Laurence the sensation of stealing the flags from an unprepared enemy and just uttered the one word, ¡°Hunt.¡± It was simple and effective. They could not tell how much stronger or weaker they were than the enemies so they would rely on stealth more than anything else. It was by far the most efficient option, as Laurence had no idea how rare a saint before the tenth floor actually was.


    The two friends looked at the map of the local area and decided to attack the two bases nearest to their own. One was to the north, the other was south. They would split up and attempt to steal the flags without being noticed and return to this base. It was a simple snatch and dash plan, and Laurence wanted to make it more intricate but he knew if he went too far it would likely blow up in his face. After a few moments of thought Laurence grabbed the three flags he had on the wall of his base and stuck them in his bag then began on his way to the south.


    He crept through the overgrowth, pushing through as quietly as possible while he looked at the map in his book. He already knew that the pool map did not show life signs, so he had a massive advantage in terms of reconnaissance when compared to all the other challengers. He saw there were three flags left in the base of his target, and one person guarding them. If he was careful he could run in and snatch them from the inside of the tree they were set up in with ease.


    Laurence moved into a position where he could see the guard but made sure it was covered enough that the guard would find it difficult to see him. He checked the book one more and saw two people heading in this direction. Perhaps he could grab the flag while those two caused a distraction. The guard sneered as he heard the two men approaching and tied some cables to a flag and stuck it outside his base. He stepped back inside the tree and raised a thick metal slab to hide behind.


    That was a moment Laurence could not let go. He dashed towards the hole while ignoring the flag outside. It seemed too good to be true, so Laurence would see what was up with it after he secured one of the other flags. There had been several times in the forest where Laurence had almost got himself killed because of his curiosity. He had not managed to rein it in, but he could focus on one thing now without getting distracted by every new item or creature.


    In the blink of an eye Laurence crossed the thirty meter gap between himself and the tree, and entered inside. He grabbed a stone from the floor and threw it into one corner of the tree. As the man behind the shield glanced at the sound made by the stone¡¯s impact, the boy jumped into the blind spot he had created. He dashed to the two remaining flags and put one in his bag as the man in front checked over his metal slab to see if someone was there. Finally Laurence jumped back up and over the man as he returned behind the slab. It was a quick snatch and grab that went as perfectly as possible.


    He had the flag in pocket so decided to fulfil his curiosity over the nature of that trapped flag. Cutting the cables Laurence heard a click and was almost immediately knocked off his feet when the flag in front of him exploded. Shards of wood, metal and cloth fibre slammed into the surrounding area, peppering the boy with lacerations and bruises. He had shut his eyes and covered his vials the moment he knew something was wrong, but the trap did not do much to him in any case. The other men were not so lucky. The two men who had been coming to steal a flag screamed and writhed around on the floor in pain because they had received a much greater portion of the damage than the boy. For every cut that Laurence had, they had two gaping wounds, and for each small bruise the boy had, they received a shattered bone.


    In moments they were simply two corpses. Laurence stood up shakily, his ears were ringing and everything was swaying. He was in the middle of a crater and honestly surprised he could still stand. He fell on his hands and knees when he could no longer keep up, and began crawling back into the vegetation. He didn''t have far too go and his body was quickly adapting and correcting the damage caused by the trap.


    "What was that?¡± Laurence thought to himself as he barely escaped the area. He had not been outwardly damaged but his senses were addled, and his brain has been shaken. He felt woozy, but managed not to throw up until he reached the brush line. He hid in a bush for a couple of minutes until his body had completely returned to normal and then got up and walked back to his base to meet Yun. The boy was still in no state to run.


    He reached the base and saw there was a large group of people around his tree. None of them seemed to be partners, but they seemed to be arguing over something. Laurence felt a sense of distress and excitement coming from Yun and realised that his friend was trapped by those people.


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    ¡°I found the dog first. I get its flag.¡± said one man, holding his cutlass in the face of one of the more aggressive competitors. They had been arguing for a while but it was only now becoming heated. Everyone wanted the flag because it would be an easy step to victory but the moment anyone tried to take it everyone would gang up and attack them.


    ¡°Over my dead body!¡± replied another, much larger man. The two finally began fighting, one blessed with skill and the other, with strength. People began getting distracted and watched the fight progress. The large man was the favourite of the crowd, as the small man had been extremely domineering while the group had been arguing. The small man was deserving of his arrogance, he was very skilled, but that only made the rest of the group dislike him more.


    As the crowd watched the small man dodge and counter the large man''s punches Laurence walked up to Yun and began petting him, putting the final flash they needed in his bag. They began walking off into the forest when the large man finally landed a hit on the small man, punching him through the crowd and knocking him clean out. The small man tumbled and landed beside the two departing youngsters, spoiling their perfect exit.


    "Where did the flag go, little boy?¡± Said the big man. It could have only gone one place, but attacking a young boy would make all but the cruellest of men pause.


    "I took it.¡± Laurence said simply.


    "Give it to me out you''ll end up getting hurt.¡±


    ¡°No.¡±


    ¡°Don''t say I didn''t warn you.¡± Said the man. He immediately dashed towards Laurence and swung his muscular arms towards the boy. There was a whistling sound as his fist flew through the air and then a crunch as the fist impacted against the child''s face. The crowd collectively winced and no one could bear to look until they heard a rather adult scream. Finally people began opening their eyes and looked in shock and horror as they saw the large man cradling his smashed hand, while Laurence just stood there, unblinking, not even harmed.


    ¡°Can I go now?¡± Said the boy, as the crowd looked on aghast at the tableau before them. One or two of the more educated challengers began realising that the child was likely one of the famous ¡®golden children¡¯ from the twelve clans, and that attacking them was folly to say the least. They started the challenge of the tower with an advantage, so some other challengers looked down on the children because they climbed through the strength of the books, not their own strength in the tower. This was a mistake by those challengers as the children often did better simply because it was what they were trained to do from birth. Many of them did not know anything other than how to survive in the tower, how to fight and the contents of their specific clan¡¯s book. It was only now that the challengers who were residents of the tower actually realised how fearsome the golden children could be.


    Without waiting for a response Laurence turned round and walked off into the forest with Yun, to leave the large group to stew in their own thoughts and wonder whether they were truly outclassed by these children. Laurence had no idea why they would stop attacking him, but he did not waste the chance he had been given. He also wondered why a man with such brittle bones was climbing Babel. It could not have been good for him.


    After about an hour there was a siren and the surviving teams were brought back to the main hall. Rachael looked at the crowd in front of her and said ¡°Well aren¡¯t you a sorry bunch. I knew a lot of you would fail, but only one team in four actually passing is pathetic. A literal child and a dog passed the test as a team, so honestly if you think you are worthy you can try again in three months, but I would advise anyone who failed here to just go home. Because you suck.


    ¡°For those of you that passed, well done. I¡¯m not proud of you, because as I said, a child and a dog passed, but you did do better than the losers. Your pointer stone is going to get upgraded to include a mana restoration ability. You just have to squeeze the stone and it will instantly restore ten percent of your mana. Be warned, recharging takes one day for each tier you are. You will also receive a ?lightstone?, which glows and illuminates a wide area for you, and two copper, forty stone shards.¡±


    There was a flash of light and a stairwell revealed itself behind Rachael. She stood in the doorway and checked every single person who came through. Taking the flags off each duo as payment for upgrading their stone, she guarded the door with a relaxed manner. No one had seen the adjudicators fight, but they had to be assumed to be strong to guard the floors. No one was willing to test a woman who looked so at ease around over a thousand people who she had just painted as worthless. It was imposing at best.


    Finally Laurence walked up to the stairwell and ascended to the next floor. It had taken him over half a month but he was finally making headway up Babel. He smiled as he looked at Yun and thought about what the next floor would be like, and if he would make any more friends than he had on this floor.

 Chapter 13: CieAwll

    Laurence was quickly confronted with a pine forest when he and Yun left the testing area. The forest was a lot thinner than the one he had been through a few days before, and a lot more frigid. It was comparatively tame, and after about an hour of travel the two companions even found a trail that seemed to lead towards a settlement. The road they were travelling was a well worn one, but still very rough and by the second hour of the meandering walk that Laurence preferred, they reached the village.


    It was a simple village, with a low population count, but it still seemed to be bustling with life. The butcher and baker were arguing over who had better produce, the smith was busy hammering away at some project or another and the inn was bursting with the sounds of merriment. Laurence had no idea why, but the inn seemed to be the main draw for the village. He walked up to the entrance of the town itself and was met by two men in armoured uniform.


    ¡°Good day young lad! If I may be so bold, may I ask why you and your canine friend are in the fine village of Cie¡¯Awll?¡± The man on the left took charge. He was the taller of the two, and seemed to have some sort of seniority that had been decided between the both of them.


    ¡°I¡¯m Laurence, this is Yun. We¡¯re climbing Babel, who are you?¡± Laurence was interested by this pair. One tall, one fat, they reminded him of the stories his mother used to tell him before going to bed with pairs or groups of people who all looked disproportionately different.


    ¡°Climbing Bay-bell? What¡¯s that?¡± The fat man had never heard the phrase, but the tall man had. The moment Laurence mentioned Babel his eyes bulged. He knew about the tower, and knew far more than his friend did.


    ¡°Shut up Trevor. I¡¯m Jake, my friend here is Trevor, Trev for short. We¡¯ve been posted on guard detail for this town, so I¡¯m going to have to take you to the inn and set you down, then I can go and sort out a pass card for you. Once you have that you can be on your way.¡± The guard, Jake, seemed rather nervous about Laurence. He acted like the child was some sort of explosive, so tried to take a careful and measured approach to deal with him.


    ¡°Jake, what¡¯s a pass card?¡± Interjected Trev.


    ¡°Shut up Trevor. A pass card is the card that the captain gives people who are allowed access to the waste. You should know that by now.¡± Jake was starting to sweat slightly now. Trev was making his job far harder than it could be.


    ¡°Can I not use this as a pass? Every challenger has something like this.¡± He revealed the slowly spiralling nebula on his right arm, with the number two in the center. Jake gulped. Laurence could tell he was getting more and more nervous about something, but had no idea what. It was beginning to annoy the boy, but he wanted to know why he was being so careful. Was he like this with all people who arrived here or was he just like this with challengers?


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid that you¡¯re going to have to wait. Don¡¯t worry though, the pass will only take twenty minutes to make. Just follow me to the inn and we can sort it out for you.¡±


    ¡°Alright then.¡±


    They quickly walked to the inn and Laurence got himself and Yun some food. They had not stocked up on food before they left, so they were quite hungry. When the two guards walked off into the inn Laurence was still feeling uncomfortable about how they left so decided to follow them. He ducked under the table he was sat at and dashed to the back door, then followed the pair until they entered a large building near the back of the town with the words ¡®Frontier Guard¡¯ emblazoned above the entrance. Laurence thought it was a bad idea to go inside, and instead followed the two men outside as they entered the office of someone they both considered their superior. He made an incision into the window near their boss with a mana blade and heard them talking.


    ¡°Sir.. He is just a child!¡± Said Jake, he knew what was coming but did not like it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care Sergeant! The General has ordered that all challengers are collected and taken to the depths of the wall. You can disagree with it, but they are dangerous, and we want to learn how to harness their power for the greater good of Odnw¡¯Aldn. This benefits us all.¡± Their Captain was a dominant personality, and he would brook nothing from his subordinates. He had his orders and they would follow theirs. ¡°Go back to that boy and make sure he reaches the wall. He has to go through there to get to the ?Ohyl Aget? anyway, so just make sure you do not lose him.¡±


    ¡°Yes sir!¡± Both men exclaimed, grabbing a cloth band on the way out. When Laurence saw this he immediately sprinted back towards the inn. When he returned he noticed that Yun had finished both plates of food and was looking very satisfied with himself. The inn was still quite raucous but only now did Laurence realise how many men in the inn were soldiers wearing a similar uniform to Jake and Trev. Two men were arm wrestling on one side of the room while a third was taking bets on who would be the winner. It had garnered a massive amount of attention from the rest of the customers and effectively left Laurence''s re-entry unknown to the patrons of the inn.


    Laurence saw this competition and wanted to take part, so he walked over to the gaggle of men and said in a loud voice, ¡°Could I have a go?¡±


    The entire crowd paused and began laughing. A child who could have been no older than ten asking to compete in a strongman competition was laughable, adorable but laughable. In the end the current champion wiped away the tears from his eyes and said ¡°I don¡¯t see why not. Same rules as everyone else and if you win three of five rounds then I¡¯ll buy the entire inn a drink. If I win then I¡¯ll just buy all the people who have challenged me a drink.¡±


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    The crowd cheered at that. Either way people would be getting free alcohol, but it was unthinkable that the champion would lose. At just under two metres tall and a metre and a half wide, the champion, Bill, was a man made of almost pure slabs of muscle. He could lift over four hundred pounds with his back and his arms were nothing to be sniffed at either. He looked like a man made of logs and then wrapped in meat. The two wrapped their hands together and people began enjoying themselves. It was a silly spectacle, but the crowd was having fun with it.


    Bill thought to himself that the easiest way to win and give the child some face would be lose the first match, win the second and third then lose the fourth, going for a victory in the fifth round. The crowd would enjoy it and it would leave with everyone feeling good, which meant people would come back to wrestle with him the next week. If he just crushed the child it would make him look bad more than anything.


    The referee struck his glass at the side of the table to signify the start and the two fighters began arm wrestling. Laurence leant forward and then put about twenty percent of his power into the push. Bill was going easy but noticed that this child actually had a large amount of strength in his arms. His hand smashed against the table and the referee clanged the glass against the table again. ¡°Round one to the kid! Come on Bill, are you trying to lose your profits for today?¡±


    Bill laughed, but then frowned. This child was different. He had heard of the ancient gods coming down in various forms to play pranks on the unwary. They often rewarded the ones who beat them well, so Bill decided to go all out over the next three rounds with greed shining in his eyes.


    Laurence smiled and looked up at the big man. He wondered how little strength he would need to beat this man, if a mere twenty percent had that reaction. He had not yet realised that Bill had gone easy on him, but it did not matter. The boy had no intention to lose either.


    The crowd cheered as the referee clanged his glass ushering the beginning of the next round. This time Bill¡¯s muscles immediately began straining and to the crowd around the table seemed to be putting on a real show for them. They laughed and joked as his arm was smoothly pushed down against the table. The referee clanged his glass again and quickly grabbed himself another drink while they prepared for round three.


    Laurence frowned, he knew that he could beat the large man at ten percent now, but the man seemed like he was really trying, perhaps it would be harder if he used about five percent of his power. He was enjoying himself now, and the crowd seemed to be too. Once the referee came back he clanged his newly filled glass against the table and ushered in the third round. The two challengers once again strained their muscles and this time the boy was pushed back. It was slow and arduous, with Bill sweating and going slightly red in the face, but no one there really believed that he was having difficulty. They thought his acting was excellent. Finally the young boy¡¯s arm hit the table and they called the round to a close. The crowd thought that now Bill was behind in the race he would simply swoop to victory three times in a row, making sure the crowd got their kicks even if they did not get the drink they could have.


    The referee clanged his glass to signify round four and they once again began straining. Laurence used six percent of his power while Bill was really going all out. HIs muscles bunched and veins popped out prominently. Blood was flowing freely round his body trying to nourish his straining muscles, but the child in front of him was like a rock surface. He was immovable and impenetrable, and it was actually beginning to scare Bill. He already knew that whatever the outcome he would not be doing this with a child again. The hands went too and fro for several minutes, the crowd getting into the fight as much as possible. People cried and cheered when it went one way or the other until finally Jake and Trev walked back into the inn. Laurence saw them and to not arouse suspicion that he knew about their odd task he smiled at them as if he was oblivious. He lost concentration and his power dropped a little, allowing Bill to clinch the victory. People who were rooting for Bill cheered and the people who rooted for Laurence booed. To all eyes outside the challengers it was a close one.


    ¡°Bill, I have to leave now, I had fun with this and I will be back to finish it at some point in the future!¡± Laurence smiled at the thought of leaving the crowd with baited breath wondering who could have won. He did not know that they all thought that Bill would have won, but they had no idea how strong the boy actually was. Bill on the other hand wiped his brow and smiled at the thought that this ending was actually the best way to keep his reputation intact. He was the only one who knew how strong the boy really was, and vowed under his breath to never accept the challenge from a child again.


    ¡°Have fun lad, I¡¯ll wait for you to become big and strong before I accept your challenge again.¡± This way at least he would have a reason to lose to the boy.


    With that Laurence left the inn behind and got on the cart set up by the two guardsmen. They told Laurence that they were going to show him to the wall, which was the direction he wanted to go towards anyway. He and Yun hopped up on the back of the cart and once more left into the unknown.

 Chapter 14: Damascus

    An entire day went by on the cart, as the party travelled from Cie¡¯Awll to the wall separating Odnw¡¯Aldn from the wasteland beyond. By the evening of the second day Laurence and the guards had arrived at the unloading area under the wall. Laurence was taken aback by the distance from which he could see the wall itself. The wall was massive, it stretched in either direction for what seemed like an eternity and dominated the landscape. The wall was breath-taking in every respect, the top seeming to reach the heavens itself. It truly cut the land in two.


    Laurence asked Jake how the wall was built, because it was one of the most incredible feats of human creation he had ever seen. Even things in the book did not match the ingenuity of this wall, which was an odd idea when he thought about it. His book told him how to make anything, but there was nothing truly big or difficult in it. Jake said it was something that had been there since ages past, that the ascended ones built it so the wildlings would stay out of Odnw¡¯Aldn.


    The boy found Jake and Trev to actually be quite good company once they had worked past the awkwardness of the plot they had formed. For almost all the questions Laurence had one of the two would have an answer. Most of the talking was done by Trev on the way back, because Jake would often stare into the middle distance and shake his head like he was contemplating something that he had a problem with. Often nothing would set him off, he would just finish what he was asked or what he was doing and then stare. Yun tried to cheer the young man up by placing his head on Jake¡¯s lap. It did not help, but Jake scratched between Yun¡¯s ears, so he was distracted from the effects of his attempt. The thousand yard stare of Jake¡¯s only seemed to get worse as they got closer to the wall. Finally they arrived at the monolith and he seemed to snap out of it.


    Jake rushed off to talk to the commander while Laurence and Trev unloaded the cart they had rode in on. Laurence knew that their transport was only partly an excuse to get him within the wall. He did not know whether they would try and capture him or whether they would just ask him what they wanted to know but he could not wait to find out. The situation was exciting to him, but then any unknown was. After about five minutes Jake came back looking very torn about his choice with a guard detail of twenty men. The commanding officer pointed at Laurence and men immediately surrounded him.


    ¡°Young boy, we are arresting you in the name of the Frontier Guard.¡± The officer paused as Laurence looked at him expectantly. He thought the child would look many things; like worried or afraid, but definitely not expectant, if not excited. ¡°By the power invested in me by Garrison Lord Adrigal I will now escort you to the prison below the wall where you will be interrogated until you tell us what we want to know.¡±


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    The guardsmen pointed their spears and ushered the young boy and his dog inside the wall. They were escorted down into the depths of the earth, on an almost direct route downwards. After an hour or so of walking the guards reached a doorway and forced the pair through into the room beyond. It was a small room, with no light source and a small, inhabited cot on the right side of the room. In the far corner of the left side of the room there was a small hole that was used as a toilet. This room was the bare minimum of what was needed to live, however it was still more than Laurence was expecting. His view of things was often skewed by the expectations set from the epic tales and poems his parents had read to him before he went to bed. His view that prisons should be unimaginable places of punishment came from the story of ?David The Betrayer?, who was imprisoned and tortured for five years. His only resting spot was a coffin that was too small for him to lie in or ever stretch out straight in. Compared to that this room was positively luxurious.


    The commanding officer closed the door and said, ¡°We will leave you here for the night. You had best hope that you are willing to talk tomorrow or we will leave you in for longer with no food or water.¡± Laurence could see Jake visibly blanch at the idea of leaving a small boy in a room with no food, water, fresh air or light source. It was obviously against his morals, but there was nothing he could do about it. He would be court-martialled and thrown in prison with the boy if he tried anything. To the higher ups this was absolutely for the greater good.


    As the light faded from the room and the men left the boy and dog to their own devices, Laurence ignited his mana reservoir to create a light. He moved over to the bed to see who their companion would be while Yun walked over to the hole and immediately regretted sniffing it. The body of the creature was small, thin and covered completely by the blanket. It was definitely not a human. He peeled off the blanket and was confronted by an imp-like creature with four wings, huge eyes and extremely long ears. It blinked at the boy as Laurence said ¡°Who are you?¡±


    The imp split its face in half with a smile and replied, ¡°My name is Damascus, and I know who you are, hammer boy.¡±

 Chapter 15: The Book of Creation

    ¡°How do you know what I am?¡±


    Laurence was shocked, was there something other than his red book that he should have been hiding? Did this odd creature, Damascus, know about his red book? If it did how? He grimaced and swung the burning weapon towards the creature saying ¡°What do you know about me.¡±


    ¡°Calm down kiddo!¡± The imp grinned even wider. ¡°I¡¯m a ?sprite?, a muse if you will. I know about you being a creator because I can feel it coming off you.¡± He got up and began flitting round the room, looking at everything with a new light. ¡°Before you got here I was a directionless sprite, one with ten thousand years of life, but with no purpose. Now I have one!¡± The creature, the sprite, hopped on top of Yun¡¯s back and lay there. He looked very comfortable on the wolf¡¯s back. ¡°Look, I am here to make you improve. I know things that you would take years working out. Give me a chance.¡±


    ¡°What are you talking about? I have finished the red book, I know all there is to know about the Art of Making and the Godly Machinations. What else is there for me to know about creation?¡±


    Damascus laughed. It was a very knowing, sarcastic laugh that got on Laurence¡¯s nerves. ¡°Look, kid. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°Laurence.¡±


    ¡°Look, Laurence. I was made by someone... I have no idea who, but I was made to help the people who talk to me attain full mastery of their book, thereby attaining the Heaven realm or the Ascendant Immortal realm. You¡¯re just a measly Saint. Does that not seem odd to you? That you are a Saint when if you master your first book you become an individual of the Heaven realm.¡±


    ¡°I guess it does seem a bit strange...¡± Laurence had to concede this point. He had known for a while that he had learnt everything that the book had to show him, but that his knowledge was also incomplete. He knew there were ways to make his weapons stronger, or greater but had no idea how. The great wall splitting Odnw¡¯Aldn from the wasteland beyond was a perfect example of this. It was made by someone who must have studied the same book as him, but it was so much greater in power, scope and pure theoretical knowledge that Laurence could not hope to compare without help. ¡°I guess you are right mister Damascus. Will you help me learn?¡±


    ¡°That¡¯s better.¡± Damascus grinned again, this time more sincerely than the last. ¡°I will help you. First thing¡¯s first. What you have in your bag is known as ?The Book of Creation? It is one of the six books that teaches people the fundamentals of reality. It also shows you how to manipulate them when you have enough control over your mana reservoir. It is split into four sections, two of which you have read and mastered. The other two parts are known as ?Infernal Enchantments? and ?Myriad Manifestations?. The Infernal Enchantments I can teach you about, because it is part of my nature, but the Myriad Manifestations is the final step towards completion. The Manifestations are the ninety-nine true masterpieces that have been created by the creation clans since the dawn of time. Each piece is a true masterwork that takes reality bending manipulation and a heightened sense of the way of the world to make. It is the hardest part of completing the book and also something that most people never do in their life times.¡±


    ¡°What makes you think I can¡¯t? What makes you think I can¡¯t complete the one hundredth manifestation?¡±


    ¡°Simple. You seem like a gifted kid, and have the will of the Hephaistia clan on your back, even if you probably don¡¯t have their blood. However, in the entire lifetime of the universe so far, the trillion, trillion, trillion, trillion years since Babel first opened her great eye, there have been ninety-nine new manifestations. You would have to be the most gifted child of the Hephaistia clan to even have a chance to understand.¡±


    Laurence was getting angry at this point. He knew that he had some skill, and that it probably did not compare to others, but the way that Damascus was saying it made him think there was no hope whatsoever. Damascus was slowly crushing the child¡¯s dream of being the best and most knowledgeable when it came to the red book, the Book of Creation. ¡°Well who is to say I am not? Who is to say I¡¯m not the son of the head of this Hephaistia clan after all?¡±


    ¡°Me. Your soul is the wrong shape. The symbol of the Hephaistia clan was the forge, not the hammer.¡± Damascus realised he was being a little bit too harsh for the child when Yun kicked him off his back. ¡°Look, kid...¡± He said, trying to make amends. ¡°You may not be able to make the hundredth Manifestation, but you are more than likely able to ascertain one of the ninety-nine. Especially with my help.¡±


    ¡°Alright.¡± Laurence was not one to hold grudges, especially when the person talking meant no real harm. In the end the two of them chatted through the night and discussed the nature of enchantment, until Laurence eventually fell asleep.


    The next morning, the officer who had put Laurence and Yun in the room went down and confronted the boy. He pulled Laurence out of his dank cell and into a room with grey walls and no windows. Sitting the boy at a chair he placed the child¡¯s hands in a vice, then put the vice in the pressure that was just enough to keep them there without them moving.


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    ¡°Child, you will tell me what I want to know, or I will press down this vice. Every time I don¡¯t believe you I will turn the handle until you tell me what I want to know.¡± A fire lit behind the commander¡¯s eyes. He enjoyed this, torture. He wanted the child to lie so he could hear the screams of pain coming from the boy. Everyone broke in the end, he just had to find the right button to push. ¡°So tell me. How does one become as powerful as one of these ¡®Challengers?¡¯¡±


    Jake was watching in the back, and knew the commander¡¯s nature. He could feel that this was going to be his last straw. He could deal with watching over grown men being tortured, because they made their choices, but this boy could not have been more than ten years old. He clutched the hilt of his sword until his knuckles went white, holding back his rage.


    ¡°That¡¯s simple¡± Said Laurence. ¡°You just go to the door to Babel on this floor and enter it. You will be tested and if you succeed in creating a mana reservoir you will be able to begin climbing.¡±


    ¡°Tighten the vice.¡± The commander said in a cold voice. ¡°I have heard that lie a thousand times before. Tell me what I want to know.¡± The vice began to turn but all it did was confuse the boy. He had not lied but was being punished anyway, and that simply did not make sense. That is unless the man intended to harm him no matter what he said. Because of that Laurence decided to go about this a different way.


    ¡°I don''t think you know what you are looking for.¡± The boy said. ¡°I told you how to become a Challenger, but if you don''t believe me that''s your loss.¡±


    ¡°We won¡¯t stop child, unless you tell me how you gained that tattoo and how you achieved your strength.¡± The commander pushed the soldier holding the clamps and twisted them, grinning viciously. He twisted the clamps tight and looked Laurence in the eye, watching for the point he would break. Adults might be able to hold back their secret but a child surely had to break. After tightening the clamps to their maximum and watching for thirty seconds the officer sighed and said, ¡°Take him back to the cell. Tomorrow we torture his dog instead. He might be strong, but he¡¯s still a child.¡±


    This irked Laurence. He had done nothing to these people, but they insisted on trying to hurt him and make him tell them something they already knew just did not believe. The fact that they were going to hurt Yun next angered him more than anything else so far. Yun was his dog, not theirs.


    They lead the boy back to his cell and when he got inside he gathered up the paltry amount of items he had taken out of his bag, cleared up everything and then said to both Damascus and Yun, ¡°Tonight we get out of here. They plan on hurting Yun to get me to tell them how to be challengers, but they already know how. The leader of these people is awful and was probably never going to let us leave in the first place.¡±


    ¡°Well Laurence, I have something I should probably mention then.¡± Said Damascus, ¡°I am a sprite, and we are bound to objects. There¡¯s a ring under the bed and it has my spirit bound to it. If you take that then I can come with you.¡± Laurence looked under the bed, it was dusty and pretty much empty, but sticking out of the area between two stones was a ring. It was stuck fast, and after about thirty seconds of pulling Laurence decided to move the bed. He summoned Jormugand, raised it into the air and smashed down on the tile with all his power. The hammerhead smashed into the ground and cracked the tile below, as well as all twenty-four surrounding tiles. He then levered the pieces apart with the blade and pulled the ring out. As he lifted the ring out of the cracks a light went off in Laurence¡¯s head because he realised that he could swing his hammer as well as thrust the spear to fight. It was a simple thought, but one that had completely passed him by due to the nature of Orion¡¯s Hunt.


    Before they could implement any sort of escape plan there was the sound of a large kerfuffle outside the cell. Two people were arguing, there was a shout and then silence. After about thirty seconds something was dragged to the door and they heard it unlock. Laurence opened the door out and saw Jake lying on the floor with his guts coming out of his stomach and a stupid grin on his face.


    ¡°Hi Kiddo. I seem to have made a little mistake.¡± His face paled as he talked, he was obviously losing a lot of blood. ¡°I couldn¡¯t stand for the captain to..¡± He paused for breath, ¡°To torture people anymore. You aren¡¯t the first person he did it to, but you were my breaking point.¡± He pointed to the corpse near the doorway limply, ¡°Simon did not agree with me.¡±


    Laurence looked at the man who had got him in the situation and was paying a far greater price than necessary to amend that. With the way his body was looking there were two options, one to seal the wound by sewing it, or to seal it with fire. The former was safer, but the latter was quicker, and time was of the essence for Jake. ¡°Sorry Jake, this is going to hurt you, but don¡¯t worry. You are coming out of here with me.¡± He paused as he pulled out his hammer and shrank it to ten centimetres in length. ¡°Alive.¡±


    ¡°Wha..?¡± Was all Jake got out before Laurence stuffed some spare leather into his mouth and sealed the wound shut with the now burning hammer. Jake screamed into the leather and tears freely leaked out of his eyes from the pain. Mercifully it was quick. Once he had done this he slapped Jake in the face. ¡°Come on Jake, I need you to guide me out of here.¡± Jake groggily responded, but the pain was becoming too much for him. It was then that Laurence remembered he still had some of the Silkweed from his and Yun¡¯s operations, so he pasted it over the wound, hung the injured man on the back of his dog and bound it with Damascus¡¯ ring, simply locking the cloth in place with pressure.


    Looking up the stairs the group could see a light source bobbing their way. Laurence reformed his hammer and pointed it into the darkness, waiting to pounce on the enemy approaching.

 Chapter 16: A Storm Approaches

    Chester Jorr was sitting at a table inside Cie¡¯Awll¡¯s inn. He nursed a beer as he contemplated getting to the next test room. It was through the massive wall that he had to pass, but after talking to several people in the town he had become very uncertain about the safety of the area. He was not a coward, but no one would ever call Chester hasty. Every thought was measured to maximise his survival, and his current predicament was based around that.


    The entire town knew about how the wall was haunted. Supposedly there was an army garrisoned at the wall and one day they had just stopped requesting supplies. When the townsmen visited the base they found very little, except some blood stains in a few rooms. They left it be and told the Frontier Guard all about it. The captain in charge of protecting the town obviously knew something and immediately sent most of the troops in the area to cover the hole in the wall, but they never returned either. It was said that they were all slaughtered in the building by those who wanted a scare, but those with more sense thought that the guardsmen had been sent on a suicide mission in the Wasteland, but they failed and the captain couldn¡¯t bare failure. Either way something odd had happened in the garrison, and Chester did not want to run into whatever it was that caused the oddity.


    He rubbed his bald head, thinking about how he would need to shave it again when he heard the door to the inn open. The bell had a nice ringing sound, supposedly it blessed people with good luck, but luck was not something Chester ascribed to. In through the door walked a child in a black monk¡¯s habit. The child was an odd looking boy, with sickly white skin, deep-set blue eyes and bright orange hair. He walked up to the counter and began talking to the Innkeeper. Chester thought nothing of it, but needed to urinate, so he stood up and walked to the outhouse. In the outhouse he finally decided to risk the odd rumours of ghosts and go to the wall. He needed to anyway, but he was still a bit hesitant. Rumours like that usually occurred for a reason. Once he pulled up his britches, he checked his sword was firmly attached to his belt and walked back inside the inn, to witness a terrifying scene. The innkeeper was dead on the counter and the boy in the monk¡¯s robes stood on a table saying, ¡°Thank you for the meal.¡± Then began breathing in.


    Thin wisps began coming out of everyone in the room and travelled towards the boy¡¯s mouth. Eventually these wisps became thicker, taking the shapes of the people they were coming out of. One after one the people dropped to the ground, first the weak, the sick and the ill of heart or mind, then the normal, then finally Bill, the muscular man who was known all around the region for being strong. In the end only Chester and the monk were left alive in the room. The boy had a rather smug look on his face until he saw the bald man.


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    He frowned, ¡°Oh, I missed one.¡± He tried breathing in again, but it failed to work for some reason. ¡°Huh... I guess that means you have a reservoir then! My name is Peter and I am going to remove your mana reservoir with my fingers.¡± He sighed lustily at some thought or other. Chester was finding it very difficult not to cut the child down right now. He had a rule to never hurt children, but this disgusting sounding creature was obviously some demon in a child¡¯s shape. He drew his sword and Peter cocked his head to one side. ¡°You¡¯ll wish you hadn¡¯t done that...¡± Pausing momentarily before continuing. ¡°Not that I was going to let you live anyway.¡±


    ¡°Back foul demon! I curse you in the name of all that is holy!¡± Yelled Chester. Defeating the boy seemed like the only viable option out of this situation, but Chester still weighed his options. He could still run and just leave this town to its doom. Peter laughed at Chester¡¯s cursing, and that broke him. He could deal with many things but even though he was a cautious individual, he still had some pride. He began using his sword style, ?Amaethon¡¯s Blade?. The style always began with a low cut to the legs, because it was based on how you reap wheat and harvest other crops. This manoeuvre led straight into a thrust towards the opponent¡¯s chest. With the reduced manoeuvrability due to dodging the slash the thrust almost always hit its target. Generally speaking the style was a simple way to a quick victory.


    Peter saw the blade swinging towards his shins and just ignored it. The blade smashed against the top of his lower legs and just stopped. The force had been entirely nullified and so Peter began his retaliation. Before Chester could even react to the fact that his sword could not cut the boy, he felt his head get wrenched back and heard his bones pop from the torsion. All he could see was the room, then the roof and then the maniacal grin of the demon child. There was a sharp pain in his abdomen, a deep sucking sound and then everything faded to darkness.

 Chapter 17: Escape

    Out of the darkness came a pair of men, one fat and the other muscular. The fat man Laurence recognised, but the muscular one he did not. Before he could even say a word the muscular man shouted ¡°PRISON BREAK!¡± Trev moved to the side and began panicking. On the journey Laurence had learned that Jake was Trev¡¯s best friend, and the reason why they had even joined the Frontier Guard was because Jake had an uncle in the guard, who got the two men in when they were considered worthless by the rest of their town. Trev owed Jake his future, so when he saw that Laurence had Jake on his pet dog seemingly kidnapping him he broke down.


    Laurence reacted immediately. The muscular man was blocking his way, so he ran towards the man and thrust his blade. He was not used to fighting on hilled ground, so did not account for the fact that he was on a slope. His blade was true, but it was far too low, harmlessly passing between the guard¡¯s legs. He realised that he had a chance to try what he had just realised was possible with his hammer and swung upwards with all his force. The hammerhead connected with the guardsman¡¯s crotch and there was a large crack with a popping sound. The man¡¯s pelvis was shattered and his groin was completely destroyed. He keeled over, the pain was too much and had simply killed him outright. If he had survived, then his tumbling down the stairs would have done the job in its place.


    Running over to the stunned guardsman, Laurence said ¡°Trev, please, help us get out of here. Jake got injured listening to his conscience and now if we don¡¯t get out of here he will die.¡± Hearing that, Trev snapped out of his stupor and grabbed the lantern.


    ¡°Alright Laurence, Jake trusted you, so I will too.¡± He smiled, ¡°I¡¯m not the smartest person in the world, so I reckon you could be tricking me, but I don¡¯t feel you are.¡± He led them upstairs and towards the exit of the wall. ¡°If we go this way it will lead us to the waste. Is that alright?¡±


    ¡°Yeah. I need to go that way anyway. If we can get to the next stele then we will be free.¡±


    ¡°Alright kid, I¡¯m trusting you with this.¡±


    Trev led the group down several winding paths as a loud bell rang. It was audible wherever they went, and was obviously the sign for someone getting out of prison. Every so often they would come across a group of soldiers, but Laurence easily dispatched most of the people he came across. There were no more awkward mistakes like the one with the man on the stairs, but he did practice using his hammer''s swing rather than thrust for a lot of the enemies. Unfortunately due to the thin corridors he could only manage down or upward arced strikes. Eventually they reached the gate to the wasteland, where a group of ten men and the commanding officer of the garrison stood. He had a crazed look in his eyes, and a bandage round one side of his face.


    ¡°Boy, this is as far as you go.¡± He drew his sword menacingly pointing it towards Laurence. ¡°And Trevor... I never thought you would succumb to this madness. I knew Jacob would eventually, he was weak of heart. But you? I thought you were too stupid. Congratulations.¡±


    Laurence could tell that the commander was trying to get under Trev¡¯s skin. Attacking his best friend¡¯s character and attacking his own weak spot. Trevor bit his lip, holding back a bitter remark and just said, ¡°I trust you with this Laurence. You¡¯re the only one who can get all of us out of here at this point.¡±


    ¡°Okay.¡± Laurence responded. It was time to kick things into gear. He started pushing mana into every muscle in his body and his power exploded. He sprang into the open area at a speed that defied normal man, swinging his hammer down into the middle of the crowd. The men split apart but one was too slow, his head bursting like an unripe melon. Before anyone could react he twisted sharply and brought his hammer down towards the four men to the left. The hammer missed one man by mere millimetres, but the blade did not. He was cut in half all the way to the ground, cracking upon impact. Quickly pulling the hammer in an upwards arc Laurence thrust into his third victim¡¯s chest, destroying the heart. He kicked the corpse away as it relieved its contents on the ground and threw his hammer at the final man in his sight. It skewered him in the diaphragm and began disintegrating, until all that was left was a man, slumped on the floor, suffocating to death.


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    Laurence turned the moment the hammer left his hand and began dashing towards the men who had dodged to the right. There were five of them, not including the commander, and within the three seconds that it took for Laurence to deal with the men on the left they had readied their swords and shields. The display just now had shocked the men, but they were trained professionals, the elite of the Frontier Guard. They were used to their companions dying, and saw Laurence as their ultimate threat. They thought they were ready, but very little would ready them for what happened next.


    Laurence sprinted forward and smashed his right shoulder into the furthest forward man, catapulting him into the commander and another man who stood behind him. Quickly bringing his hammer down he used the weapon to stop his forward momentum, while caving in the now grounded soldier¡¯s chest. He spun, stepping forward and cut another soldier in half with the blade, then twisted back to face the men behind him. One man actually managed to get a sword stroke in towards Laurence, but the childish embodiment of a meat grinder struck his shoulder with the hammer before he could complete the stroke, severing his sword arm. The man began screaming and fell to the floor as blood pumped out of his stump with reckless abandon. Laurence lifted the hammer over his head and let it fall behind him, killing the last standing man by crushing his skull.


    The only people left after the flurry of blood and gore were the commander and the final guard. Because the guard fell on top of the commander, the torture obsessed leader of this place was struggling to get up. He pushed off the guard and drew his long sword. Quickly standing and readying his weapon. ¡°Boy, are you prepared to go one on one against me? Or will you hide behind sneak attacks and strange magics?¡±


    Laurence stopped with a confused look on his face. There was a time and place for blaming your defeat upon the opponent cheating, but Laurence had entirely overwhelmed the guardsmen when they had set a trap. This unabashed denial was bizarre. The man should be like the only surviving guardsman, crawling away in fear. And yet he stood, with unwavering determination that he was in the right and that Laurence was cheating. It was odd to say the least.


    ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll just beat you on your own then.¡± He had had enough of this man, and wanted to make a point. The captain had no way of hurting him. None. So Laurence did the only thing that he could consider reasonable, he ignited his hammer and swung it. The blade cut through the left arm of the captain, cauterising the stump as it passed. He then cut the captain¡¯s sword arm off, again flesh sizzling as the wound sealed when he passed.


    The captain screamed as his arms were both severed by a child, in his eyes this was an entirely unforeseen circumstance. A seven year old child, no matter how strong should not be able to dominate an adult as Laurence had done. The child then turned and swung across, severing the captain¡¯s legs. He screamed once more as he fell forwards, onto the ground. Laurence flipped his body over and said, ¡°You can stay here now. I doubt anyone will come and save you, but you can scream your heart out if you want.¡± He smiled menacingly and stared into the eyes of the man. ¡°In the words of Eman Kent, ¡®What was won is no longer here. Those who are alone will know true fear.¡¯¡±


    He stood and ushered his group through the field of corpses, leaving the limbless captain to defecate himself out of terror. There was nothing left for them before the wall, so they began walking into the waste. Soon they were nothing but specks on the horizon, and the captain was still alone.

 Chapter 18: A Storm Arrives

    A week later the group had rested up and Laurence had spoken to Trev about their precarious situation. Laurence told him about how they ended up in the awkward position he found them in, and explained the nature of the tower. He also treated Jake¡¯s wound until the young man was no longer a complete invalid. He was still wounded, but he was now on the mend. During the day Laurence began instructing his two counterparts in the Inner Flame Formation, just to see if he could. He instructed them in what it would do and how it could help Jake heal himself, and within about three days both men hand got a grasp on the mana in the area. They spent the mornings breathing and practicing the Inner Flame, and the evenings travelling towards the door to the next floor.


    Life went by quite peacefully until around eight days into the waste. They were two weeks from the next gate at their current rate but because of Jake not being fully healed they could not go much quicker. As they were just setting down for the night in an enclave beneath a hill when a young man, covered in mud leapt off the top of their hill. He landed amongst the group and they scattered, looking at him warily. He was a long, thin man. More bone than flesh, with dreadlocks, and beads everywhere. He was truly wild, and had obviously lived in the wasteland for a very long time.


    Being the first person they had seen in a very long time they were not sure how to approach him, however he did not give them the opportunity. He looked at them, shocked, for a few seconds then said something in a language that no one understood and sprinted away into the distance. He was running scared, they could tell that, but from what they had no idea.


    ¡°Who was that?¡± Said Laurence.


    ¡°I think that was a wildling.¡± Said Jake. ¡°That was the first I have seen, but they don¡¯t speak the language of the empire.¡± He stopped for a moment and then said ¡°That raises the point, how are you talking in Empire when you aren¡¯t even from the same plane of existence?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. I assume that there is a natural tongue that all planes in Babel follow?¡± Laurence replied.


    ¡°I assume that is the reason why we have different accents, yet are using almost all the same words. Most people consider wildlings to be uncultured barbarians, but he was terrified of something. There''s nothing that wildlings are afraid of other than...¡± Jake paused and all the colour drained from his face. ¡°Oh no. Oh no, no no no. This is bad.¡±


    ¡°What is?¡±


    Jake tried to stand up but couldn''t support his upper body as well as he would have liked. His feet slipped out from under him and he toppled over onto his hands and knees. "There''s a ?Chaos Storm? coming. It''s the only thing that wildlings would run like that from. We have to move and either get underground or somehow stop ourselves from being exposed!¡±


    ¡°What''s a Chaos Storm, Jake?¡± Said Trev as he and Laurence helped move all their gear near to the hill they were sheltered by.


    "How do you not remember, Trevor? The storm comes once every hundred or so years in Odnw¡¯Aldn, but in the waste they occur often and at random. If you''re a living thing caught in it then it will warp your body and your mind. All that''s left of you will be a withered representation of your previous self.¡± He paused and shivered at the thought of the storm. "Records say that people who were only slightly exposed to the storm heard it laughing as it ate the land up. It wants to send the world mad.¡±


    ¡°Well I will get to making us a proper place to hide out then. Can you work out how long we have?¡± Said Laurence. The child immediately flicked through the book of creation until he found what he was looking for, a ?Quick-House? that could fit four people. It required very little technical skill, but it did need something else to be built quickly. What was required was something called ?Trueforming?, which was the special ability of the practitioners of the Book of Creation. In theory, anyone could craft runes and imbue them with magic, but only the Creation practitioners ever did.


    Trueforming was the ability to shift the shape and nature of matter from one form to another. It used your mana to change the nature of reality in its most basic form. With just a thought a person could transform lead into gold, albeit at a large cost to their mana pool. The difficulty with trueforming was that the higher the power of the object, the greater the mana cost would be, and if you were not careful then you could easily over-use your mana reservoir which would reduce your lifespan. A person trying to trueform could easily create a Saint level weapon or material, but if they were of the saint level then they would only be able to do it at the cost of half their mana pool. If they wanted to create something of the Heaven rank, then it would take at least ten years off their lifespan as well as their entire pool.


    This was all something that Laurence and Damascus had gone over during the last week. They would often talk about it during travel, which confused Trev to no end, as for some reason he was the only person in the group who could not see the odd sprite. They had spoken about trueforming in great detail, and how that it was what all children who had been exposed to the book of creation would be able to do first, but at complete random. It was apparently a way for the universe to offset the demanding nature of the skill with the children¡¯s lack of control. Finally it was time for Laurence to put into action everything that he had learned over the week and make the party a safe place from the storm.


    He began channelling mana into the air around him, bending the space he stood in to his will. It was a slow, insidious process to him but happened in mere moments to the rest of the world. Soon the muddy ground began twisting and rising around the boy as he moved it to form a wall to protect them from the elements. The mud rose in sinuous pillars at Laurence¡¯s command, thickening and growing until all the spires reached the peak of the hovel they were hiding in. Laurence¡¯s brow was riddled with sweat as he continued making the place stable and safe from exposure to the terrifying storm. He grew pillars out of the ground to support the roof and condensed the mud until it was solid rock then finally let go of his control. It was by far the hardest thing he had ever done, and almost completely drained his mana reservoir of all its power. The entire thing felt like it took Laurence about an hour, taking the matter around him and refining it, twisting it into the shape and form he desired, but it had taken mere seconds to raise the entire hut from the ground.


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    As he finished the hut Laurence could no longer stand, and collapsed onto his rear, rather unceremoniously, looking at his completed work. What he stood inside was a hill to the outside world, but inside was a functioning home. It had a pit to keep the fire going in, a smoke exit to get the smog out of the area, softer resting areas for them to sleep in and a single door, that could open and close. However the room was not finished. It could protect them from normal weather fine, but if anything could break through the three inch thick stone walls then they would be immediately exposed. Laurence wanted to inscribe the area, just to finish the job, but he had absolutely no spare mana left. He could barely stand, let alone focus.


    After about five minutes of straining to do anything Laurence remembered that Tony had told him he could restore his mana using something but he could not focus enough to remember what. His body thrummed with tiredness and annoyance, so he tried to relax by practicing the Inner Flame Formation. After circulating his mana a few times he found that it was restoring much quicker than he was expecting. Laurence also noticed his tiredness also alleviated faster than even when he slept. He could feel his nerves, lined with mana, igniting and becoming molten. It should have hurt but instead he just felt rejuvenated. The weariness that permeated his entire being was just washed away by that river of fire.


    When Laurence had refilled half his reservoir he stood up and stretched, feeling better than if he had slept for days. ¡°How are things looking?¡± He said.


    "Well you''ve been out of commission for an hour, and the storm is going to hit us in around five minutes.¡± Said Damascus, ¡°I''m glad to see your first trueforming went well though. Are you all done?¡±


    ¡°No. I need to inscribe before the storm hits, but that won''t drain me as much as changing the shape of that dirt did.¡± He replied. He immediately began cutting into the walls with a short blade of mana. He cut and cut, foregoing strengthening every section and just casting the inscription over the entire house. It would cost him even more mana, and be less powerful, but would be far quicker than any other method and now time was of the essence.


    Mere moments before the winds picked up and the storm hit did the boy finish inscribing the glyphs into the walls. It was a nerve-wracking moment for the group because now would be when their defences would be tested. The winds whipped against their base as they curled up next to the fire, rain smashed against rock and lightning fired off again and again. The storm was beyond intense. It seemed to ease up for a short while, but then the laughter started. It was a low laugh to begin with, quiet but omnipresent, echoing over the landscape as creatures would scream and die, warped beyond recognition from the bizarre rain. After a while the laughter picked up and became louder. There was an underlying sense of malice coming from the laughter as if it knew the power it had and revelled in that knowledge. It was like the laugh of a mad god, giggling as it ruined all it surveyed.


    The storm began firing off bolts of lightning with reckless abandon, striking in every direction. Eventually it even struck so close to Laurence and the rest that they could feel the shock wave. The only thing they could do was hope that they were lucky and Laurence''s defences would hold. Finally the laughter began to fade and the storm moved on. It was an arduous wait, but eventually the world was quiet again.


    Jake looked out of the hut and told the rest of them it was all clear of the cataclysm that had passed them by. They were prepared to see some damage but were not ready for the destruction they were confronted with the moment the sun assailed them once more. In front of the group was a bombsite. Beyond them for miles around were pits created by lightning strikes and torn up debris. The forest they had holed up around half a mile away from had been transplanted all around them and there were now new hills. The wasteland had entirely changed its face, but Laurence''s pointer stone still said nineteen days away, so all they could do was bear with the changes and move on.


    They travelled for the next two weeks without incident. The young men we able to spend the time slowly healing up, while Laurence picked up the art of enchantment. He spent hours with Damascus each night just talking about the finer points of creating a powerful tool or device, and after two weeks of learning he finally understood how the myriad of strange objects came to be. He learned that when a person gains a deep understanding of trueforming they could write his sigils on the smallest forms of matter that made up the objects, what Damascus called ¡®atoms¡¯. He began to understand that the way he had been creating tools was rudimentary in comparison, and that while it was not necessary to make all your materials through trueforming, all inscribing should be done that way.


    The process of learning this took him a lot less time than Damascus thought it would have, but a lot longer than Laurence would have liked. However he did not have much time to contemplate it because they arrived at the stele the day after he finished working through that section of the book. He was now an expert on enchanting in theory, in practice he had yet to try it a single time.


    Over the three weeks they had been traveling, Jake and Trev had learned a lot about the tower they supposedly lived in, and had decided that they wanted to explore it on their own. They thought it would be an awful idea to ride on the coattails of a child through this, so they told Laurence, Yun and Damascus that they would be going their separate way in the tower.


    ¡°We will miss you guys!¡± Said Laurence as they opened the door. It might be a long time before he met them again, so he pulled out a gift that he had been preparing for the last week of travel. In his hands were two red books, identical to Laurence''s Book of Creation in every possible way. ¡°Here''s a gift. You guys are now practitioners of the Book of Creation, so use it wisely, and when you meet me you can show me how far you''ve come.¡± He gave his two friends the books and smiled as he watched them disappear into the tower.


    As the two guardsmen left the group Damascus swore and looked apologetically at Laurence. ¡°Sorry Laurence, but I am going to have to go as well. Jake never gave my ring back, so I am going to have to go with him!¡± He began fading away as his ring moved away from the boy and the wolf. ¡°Before I go, I think you really do have what it takes to inherit the will of Hephaistia. Good luck kid!¡±


    And then Laurence and Yun were once again on their own.

 Chapter 19: Cleos Third Test

    Cleo stood breathlessly in a bizarre abyss. The place was like an Escher painting that had been torn into pieces and scattered in every direction. There were stairs leading nowhere, doors that connected to themselves and odd windows that looked into parallel universes. It hurt her head to think about the area too much, it obviously was not meant for normal minds to comprehend.


    She looked over at her friend on the nearby stairwell and shouted over ¡°It¡¯s okay Winoa! The jump is easy to make, gravity seems to be really odd here.¡± Her friend looked nervous at the massive gap between the two stable platforms then took a running start and jumped. Her jump through the void was serene and graceful, as if time had slowed down for her. Finally she landed on the edge of the platform, and Cleo grabbed her hand to make sure she did not slip off.


    The two of them had become firm friends after they were paired together during the second floor testing room. It turned out that once Winoa had been forced to get over the stigma of Cleo being a fourth child, she discovered they actually got on well. They were as different as oranges and apples, but they were both members of Chaos clans and knew that life in the clans could be hard.


    Winoa looked almost the opposite of Cleo, where she was thin, Winoa was muscled. Cleo was tall for her age, while her friend was short. She was fair and flaming, while Winoa was dark and windy. Yet they were friends. They had become friends and companions through strife and it held them together tighter than blood ever held Cleo to anyone. It was a new experience for her and she loved it.


    Together they had reached the third floor testing room together and had been confronted with this crazy maze. Only one of them had to complete the maze for them both to pass, but if they both failed then they would be stuck in the zone forever. They were told in the introduction that this area was endless and one could only leave if they went through five doors labelled one to five. Each door was situated in a region of this weird space where the rules of physics seemed to have gone on holiday.


    In front of them was a staircase that seemed to lead back to the start but was the only way to progress. There was no other route in any direction for them to follow, so they did the only thing they could and progressed. After about twenty minutes of going round in circles Cleo could not take it anymore. She screamed at the world, the stairs and anything else that would make her climb up those steps again. Winoa on the other hand was frowning.


    ¡°What are you thinking about, Win?¡± Said Cleo.


    ¡°I am pretty sure we aren''t going round in circles.¡± Winoa paused and surveyed her surroundings, sitting down and sticking her thumb in her mouth to help her think. ¡°Well we are, but it has a purpose.¡±


    Cleo stopped screaming at inanimate objects and turned towards Winoa. ¡°Other than to drive me mad? What is it?¡±


    ¡°Well I am not exactly sure, but I swear that every cycle we have gone through had moved this platform closer to the second door.¡± She stood up and said ¡°Wait here. If I don''t show up in ten minutes then run the loop. I am going to do that now, and will wait on the other side. If I don''t show up again then we are going into different but similar looking rooms, If I do then the platform should move closer to the door. Unfortunately I don''t know which is the right answer yet.¡±


    ¡°I understand.¡± Cleo replied, ¡°I will follow you after a count of six hundred unless you show up again.¡±


    ¡°Alright then, let''s do this. See you on the other side, sister!¡± And with that Winoa was off. She summoned wind beneath her feet and sprinted over the gap in space to the door. Opening it she went through without a moment''s hesitation.


    That was something Cleo loved about Winoa. She was so used to having to decide whether her actions would impact people''s views of her that impulsiveness was not a trait she often showed. She always admired the freedom that people had, that she lacked because of her father, and Winoa had that freedom in droves. To Cleo it seemed like everything she did was for her sake and no one else''s. She idolised her first friend.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Less than ten seconds after Winoa left the room the entire place dimmed. The platforms began shaking and Cleo lost her balance. She immediately lay down on her front and rode the platform as it began moving towards the exit door, edging ever closer until finally it stopped moving with the door hanging mere inches from the platform. The room lit up again and Cleo threw up over the side of the platform. She may have been a Saint but the vibrations disturbed her stomach in unimaginable ways.


    As her vomit flew off into the void Winoa returned. ¡°You look like death, Cleo. What happened in the five seconds it took me to reach here from the door?¡±


    She wiped her mouth and pulled a flask of water from within her storage ring. ¡°You were gone for a few minutes. The platform was bumpy. I threw up into the void.¡± Each sentence was punctuated with gulps of water as the young girl desperately tried to wash out the acidic taste in her mouth. Once she succeeded, both of the girls took a look at the door with the big number two on it.


    After what felt like an hour, the two girls decided to just open the door and jump through to the other side. With their hearts in their mouths they flew through the entrance and landed in a black and white checkered world. On the floor in front of them was hundreds of tiles, each alternating in colour. The pattern on each tile made it look like they were a hole, and there was void underneath. It was confusing for both the girls, because they could not tell whether the tiles were real or fake. Eventually all they could do was step forward.


    Cleo took the first step forward and put her foot on what looked like a black tile. She did not fall through, so assumed that the black tiles were safe. Once Winoa saw her land on the tile safely she quickly followed and took the initiative to try and jump on the next black tile. Once again she landed, but just missed the edge with her back foot and felt herself begin to slip into the void. She summoned a gust of wind behind her to push herself forward, finally landing on the tile safely.


    ¡°Cleo, the white tiles seem to be the fake ones. Let¡¯s pick up the pace, I can¡¯t even see the door yet.¡±


    ¡°Alright, but something about this seems too easy.¡± Cleo responded, then jumped forward two tiles safely.


    They continued forwards for about ten minutes when out of the corner of Cleo¡¯s eye she seemed to see a black line in one of the tiles, but before she knew it she had passed the line. Winoa jumped forward and once again landed on the black tile, and now it was Cleo¡¯s turn to progress. She hopped over the white space in front of her and dove onto the tile, but the tile was just more space. Winoa just saw her friend quickly disappear into the tile, so before she could even think about what she was doing she lunged towards her and caught Cleo by the wrists before she would plummet into eternity.


    Cleo was too shocked to even scream, but when she got her bearings and realised she was safe, she pulled herself up onto the white tile that was now their safe spot. She brushed herself off, neatened her red dress and then fell to her knees and began crying. It was the closest to death she had ever come and she had no idea how to deal with it. All she could do was cry. Winoa tried to console her, but eventually the young girl could cry no more. She wiped her eyes with a small hand and a determined look showed upon her face. This place had made her cry in front of her new friend, and she would get it back for that.


    She ignited flames on her fingers, they were pretty little lights that flickered around each digit that seemed to jump with joy at being summoned. With these flames she would find out if a tile was real or not. Not even thinking about it for a moment Cleo began to fire off the little flames towards the platforms in front of her and within seconds they had a path that led forwards by over a hundred tiles. To compensate for her fear she would pass this exam quicker and better than anyone else.


    The two girls began sprinting towards the exit, every one hundred or so tiles they would stop and Cleo would burn a path for them, but within two minutes they were at the third door. Without batting an eyelid Cleo opened the door and stepped into the room beyond.

 Chapter 20: Completion

    The room beyond the third door was a simple greyed hallway. It stretched off into the distance and disappeared beyond their sight. The hall began sloping down, and the girls could clearly see that the road began dipping into a crevasse, spiralling down inside the rock before disappearing beyond her sight. She looked around and quickly began walking forwards, testing out with earth to make sure there were not any traps ahead of her. Cleo was not as gifted with earth as she was with fire and wind, but her anger gave her a clarity that she had not had before. It allowed her much smoother control overall the elements, but especially the two that she had already mastered.


    ¡°This seems far too easy Cleo¡±. Said Winoa as they began descending into the rock.


    ¡°All of the tests here have been relatively easy. They have just been messing with our heads and how we see things. I expect this to be no different.¡± She strode onwards as her friend ran to catch up. After roughly five minutes of walking the two girls felt a sharp twisting in their guts. There was something wrong but they had no idea what it was. A few seconds later they began exiting the other side of the tunnel, where they were presented with a round hill that they had to walk up. The angle of their path had not changed, but now they were walking up instead of down. It was disorientating, but they adjusted quickly. Seeing that this was effectively the only gimmick, the two girls began picking up the pace. They both pushed their senses through the earth to make sure that they were safe, and walked on their way.


    After another twenty minutes the path led inside the hill once again, and the girls felt that strange sense in their gut. Winoa buckled and tripped at that point, falling towards the floor. However the moment she left the ground she began floating. It was as if gravity only paid attention while she was touching the ground. She quickly dove for the ground she was on and touched it without the momentum that she had when she fell.


    ¡°Oh damn!¡±


    ¡°What is it Win?¡± Replied Cleo.


    ¡°I the earth just stopped holding me down for a second. It was incredible!¡± She sighed. Winoa would have liked to play around with the idea that she could just float off and fly about, as even masters of wind on the chaos tree can only begin removing the shackles of gravity when they truly reach Heaven rank, but she had to pass this test. It was a necessity. Once she began mastering ?The Book of Chaos? she could play around with flight all she liked.


    The two went on, testing the ground once they got outside the tunnel. It seemed that gravity would only affect things that were touching the ground once they left the tunnel. If they left the tunnel while touching the floor then they would begin floating away. It was something odd about the material of the land they were in and the fact it had no natural gravity. Couple that with the fact that every time they went through a tunnel the world would turn upside down, and the place became a pain for the girls. The quickly ran through the area, being careful during the tunnels, and eventually reached the top of the mountain they had been climbing. It could have also been the bottom of the gorge they were descending into but neither of them were quite sure. Pushing open the door labeled four they were confronted with the last room of the test. What lay in front of them was a large gorge. Neither girl could see the bottom of the pit, nor could they even see the other side. The vista was obscured by a broiling stormfront that stretched far and wide. Occasionally one of the girls would see a spark skittering across the dark clouds, looking like it could jump out at them at any time. It was a fearsome sight.


    On the floor was an odd map of the gorge. It had over a hundred caverns scattered all over the place, each one connected to another two or three by a ledge. The girls could see from the map that the exit to this bizarre zone was one ledge away, but they had no idea how far the ledges were from each other or how safe just jumping off the side of the wall would be. Every other route so far had been laden with odd and unpredicted dangers, so anything could be a trap.


    ¡°What should we do?¡± Said Cleo, starting at the distressing map.


    ¡°You might be happy to jump towards that storm, but I am not going near that thing.¡± Replied Winoa. At this point she was actively reigning in Cleo¡¯s will to complete this trial with very little regard for her life. ¡°I''m going to look at these paths. Are you coming?¡±


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    ¡°Alright. Without flight this place seems like the best option.¡±


    The two girls moved into the nearest cave and followed the path in front of them. There was not much around them but they were both quite tense. There could be a trap at any point, and the innocuous nature of the paths they were on made them feel like there was something coming just round the corner. Finally they exited the tunnel and were presented with a very similar experience to when they entered the area. In front of them was a veranda, much like the first area but rather than the odd map was etched on the floor, it was presented neatly on a dais. The map was exactly the same it just showed that the girls were on the the far left of the area rather than in the bottom-centre where they started. They had walked for less than three minutes but they had managed to cross the entire area. It was as if space was being stretched and squashed.


    Under the sign there was a little plaque with the phrase ¡®To get to the fifth you must go back to the start of this.¡¯ Cleo would have not noticed it if she had not seen the plaque glint when they were deciding the path to leave.


    ¡°Hey, Win, look at that. To get to the fifth? Does this mean the door?¡±


    ¡°Looks like it. Does that mean we have to get back to the first room we started in?¡±


    ¡°I guess so.¡± Cleo said. She looked at the paths and decided to walk back the way they came. The path this time was about five minutes of walking, but no less tense. The girls were even more on their guard now that they had walked though the path before, but they were no slower. Once they realised the path was longer on the way back they became suspicious.


    ¡°There is something wrong with this.¡± Said Win.


    ¡°Yeah,¡± Said Cleo, ¡°I don¡¯t understand. We went down the same route right?¡±


    ¡°Definitely.¡± Winoa looked at the map on the dais in front of them. She studied the image in front of them and said ¡°If the map was correct then we have travelled onto the far side of the gorge in way less time than it should have taken.¡± They had travelled tens of miles in five minutes by walking. In any world that would be incredible, but they had no idea where they were going. The paths seemed to lead where they wanted to, not where you needed them.


    Winoa looked around the area for any sort of clue while Cleo continued to peruse over the ¡®map¡¯. She scoured the room before turning to the dais that had grabbed their attention so easily beforehand. It quickly gave them an answer that was no clearer than before. Embedded into the ground by the back of the podium was another plaque. This time it said ¡®sometimes the only way to go forward is to go back¡¯.


    When Winoa read this she stopped and thought for a moment. Both these plaques were suggesting that they should retrace their footsteps. Perhaps in a place where the route changed depending on how one entered the cave the best bet really was to just repeatedly re-enter the way they came out.


    ¡°Cleo, I have an idea about how we get out of here quickly. It sounds odd but I think we just need to repeatedly retrace our steps and we will get out of here in no time.¡± Said Winoa.


    ¡°Well it beats the idea of just picking things at random.¡± She smiled. Cleo did not realise it but Winoa liked to see that smile. In Winoa¡¯s mind she did not smile anywhere near enough. They walked back the way they came and were once again confronted with an area that looked the same but said they were elsewhere. They quickly walked back the way they came and found another different room. Neither girl knew whether they were going the right way but they were making progress of a sort. The two girls spent an hour just walking back and forth between entrances until finally they reached an area that looked different to all the rest. In front of them was the final door. Unlike the other doors, which had been rather plain, this door was ornate, red and had a big number five on it. It was without a doubt the exit, and after finding it the girls could not be happier.

 Chapter 21: The Cave Of The Elements

    The other side of the doors was the simple room that they first met the adjudicator of this floor in. He was sitting on a table next to an hourglass that had run about a third of the way through. Magnius, he had said his name was, was not a large man, but with his spectacles low on his nose and a book in hand he looked like quite the scholar. As the two girls walked through the exit to the odd space warping dungeon he put down his book, looked at the timer and greeted the girls with a look of pleasant surprise upon his face.


    ¡°Congratulations ladies!¡± He said the moment they closed the doors. ¡°You are the first people to complete this round of tests. Would you like a rest or to move on immediately?¡±


    ¡°I want to move on immediately!¡± Said Cleo. ¡°I want to see what the third floor contains.¡±


    ¡°Please Cleo, I need a rest.¡± Said Winoa. ¡°We have been focussing intently for hours and I just need a moment to relax. Can we sit down and move on in a bit?¡±


    Cleo looked at her friend and then realised how drained she actually felt. The task that they had been presented with has stressed their minds to their greatest depths. It did not seem like much, but when presented with odd rooms constructed in ways that made no sense to reasonable thought it would cause a lot of undue stress on the minds of the challengers. She sat down next to her friend and began to massage her temples. Her headache had come on the moment she had left the room and let herself relax, and not unrightly so. She had pushed herself way beyond what was entirely necessary in passing this test but it had made her cry and nothing had done that to her in a long time. Her family was not worth her tears in her eyes, so she never cried. No matter what they did to her.


    ¡°While you girls are sitting there, would you like your reward for completing the third tier of tests of Babel?¡± Said Magnius.


    ¡°Sure¡± both girls said with pained expressions on their faces. Their headaches were quickly beginning to ease up but that did not mean they were ready to approach anything complicated yet. Magnius pulled a couple of wooden charms out of a small bag and said ¡°These talismans are known as ?Break Talismans?. They are well used artefacts that can be activated to break through something. The better quality the talisman the more powerful they will be.¡±


    Both girls looked at the talisman in their hands. They had heard of the main product of the Dominus clan before, but they had never actually seen one. A high quality break talisman could stun even an ascendant immortal, but the lower grade ones would work well enough on saints or lower. These talismans were one time use trump cards that could completely change the outcome of a fight. It was a precious lifeline that they had been given on this floor.


    ¡°As well as the talisman, you will also receive four copper and eighty stone shards.¡± He handed them the money, which they both put in their storage spaces. ¡°The final thing is that I need to upgrade your pointer stone. It will now contain an instant messaging system. You will be able to register the aura frequency of someone¡¯s stone and then sent them messages, no matter where they are in the tower.¡±


    The girls had seen the stones do this for members of their clans who had challenged the tower before. It seemed to be the most useful addition that the stone actually had, or at least the one that people relied on most often. Cleo quickly registered Winoa¡¯s aura frequency and her friend did the same.


    ¡°With that you can leave whenever you want. If you would like to stay please don¡¯t worry too much. No one will likely be coming out of the maze for a few hours yet.¡±


    The girls chatted about it for a while and eventually came to the conclusion that they would leave once they rested up. It did not take long, owing to their saint-like constitutions, and so soon they were on their way again. They left Magnius to his own devices and ascended into an extremely large cavern.


    The cavern was one of the most stunningly beautiful natural formations the girls had ever seen. They gazed in awe at the way the surroundings were lit up by the red ?Salamandrite?, and how there were beautiful ethereal patterns made from the multicoloured gems. It was a breathtaking underground maze that they would have to walk through to get to the next door. Winoa pulled out her pointer stone and checked the distance to the next stele.


    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    ¡°Umm... Cleo? We may have an issue.¡±


    Cleo had not really been paying too much attention to what Winoa had been doing. She was too entranced by the magnificence of the gemstones surrounding them, and the elemental energy she could feel sprouting from them. Winoa¡¯s words snapped her out of her reverie, ¡°What? What¡¯s up?¡± She said as she turned around to look at her friend. Before Winoa could even say a word Cleo could see what the issue was. The pointer stone was showing a large sixty above it. Her face dropped as she recognised the multitude of issues with that number. ¡°It¡¯s going to take two months? Two whole months to get to the next room? What are we going to do for food?¡±


    They looked around and collected some gemstones before moving on. It was reaching the end of the first day when Winoa pulled out the gems and had a close look at them. Cleo could not see what she was looking at them for but when she shouted out in success the young girl became intrigued.


    ¡°Cleo! I think I have worked out a solution to our future food problem.¡± Winoa looked very proud of herself.


    ¡°What is it Win?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m not going to be able to do it yet, but you have a fair amount of earthen control. You could use the earthen power in these gems to speed up the growth of the potato seeds we have in our storage spaces! It¡¯s effectively infinite food as long as you can find yellow gems.¡± She threw a few bright yellow gems at Cleo. ¡°Examine them, you¡¯ll be able to feel the earthen chaos coming out of them.¡±


    ¡°Do you think this is ?Treantite?? If it is then we have struck a goldmine and should collect as many gemstones as we can.¡± Cleo was taken aback. Treantite was one of the most valuable agricultural gemstones. It was required for a chaos practitioner to grow any large amounts of plants with success. It also allowed for people to use their own more earthen power more precisely.


    ¡°I think so. If the red stones are salamandrite and the green are treantrite, does that mean the the blue are ?Nereid Aquamarines?? And what are the white stones?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Either way I will grow some potatoes for us when we get to our next stopping point.¡±


    The girls moved on once they had eaten and slept. The cavern should have been oppressive to them but due to the affluent elemental energy both Cleo and Winoa loved being there. They quickly paced through the caves, not even stopping to take breaks and checked their pointer stones regularly. The stone picked up their increase in pace and registered that they would only take forty days at the rate they were going. They were both pretty happy about that, and so at the end of the day Celo decided to sort out a bigger meal than they had had over the last couple of days.


    She pulled out a couple of seed potatoes out and infused earthen energy into one of them. The potato quickly swelled and then exploded from the excess energy. She let out a gasp when she was covered in mashed potato. Failure after failure happened until Cleo finally began succeeding with plant growth. It was hard for her to control the power so meticulously because it required the opposite of what Cleo was used to. Fire was all about releasing mana at its maximum, and wind was all about keeping the mana flow steady. Earth was often about using just the right about of mana appropriate to grow plants. Eventually after blowing up nearly twenty potatoes Cleo could finally grow the potato to its maximum. She quickly grew a few more and began preparing them for dinner.


    The two girls chatted and laughed about the situation they were in over dinner, then quickly decided to go to bed and prepare for the next day. Cleo was just about to drift off to sleep when she noticed a red knife stuck into the ground. ¡°I wonder how that got there...¡± she thought as she faded into blissful nothing.

 Chapter 22: The Enchanted Knife

    Laurence looked at the gems in front of him. There were ten that he could use as enchantments, but only one he could make a weapon out of. A large sheet of salamandrite had smashed in front of him while he was exploring the cavern and the stones he had salvaged from the accident were paltry. If he could have used the entire sheet he could have made something incredible, but instead he would have to make a knife.


    After thinking about what he wanted the knife to do he set it down in front of him and began to change the shape of the gem shard. He ran mana through his fingers and projected a knife-edge out of them, then proceeded to whittle the shard into the shape of a needle blade. Once he felt the blade itself was complete he constructed a solid hilt, but left a small centimetre long hole in the middle and at the base.


    The vessel was finished but Laurence was not done with the knife. He began channelling copious amounts of mana into the blade. On the outside the knife looked no different, but in his mind¡¯s eye Laurence could see the molecular makeup of the knife. Laurence began colouring the molecules black and white, forming the glyphs needed to imprint his will upon the knife. It began shaking in his palms, the tool vibrating with excess energy. It was the first time that the boy had tried to make a weapon this way, and it took far more concentration and fine control than he was used to. He had nearly lost control of the flow of mana five times already, which would have made the tool explode and rendered his work useless. Sweat dripped down his forehead, rolling onto his nose as he focussed. He wanted to get this right the first time, but it was unbelievably hard. It was the combination of everything he had learned up to this point and the key to him improving.


    As he focussed a thin band of black began appearing down the centre of the blade. The blade began vibrating even harder as the band reached the three holes in the hilt of the dagger. It split and wrapped round each hole before reconnecting and moving further down the weapon. The vibrations became so hard that it almost jumped out of Laurence¡¯s hands. The band was growing quickly, but it was painfully slow to Laurence. Everything had seemed to slow down as he cut out all outside stimuli. There was only the boy and the dagger, the glyphs and the target. He could feel that the blade was almost complete, but the whole process was draining his mana far quicker than he thought possible. Most things he had done with mana took barely any from his reservoir, but trueforming drained it in mere minutes.


    Laurence had reached the last stretch but there was very little mana left in his system. He reached the tip of the blade and began pulling the dregs of mana in his system out to finish the job. He began shaking and his vision blurred but he was not going to give up. As the last glyph came down he swooned and collapsed. He was not unconscious, but he could not move, and could barely think. Eventually his mana reservoir began drawing in mana from the outside world, and Laurence was able to regain some semblance of control over his body again. He felt Yun licking his face and heard him whimper. The thought ¡°Brother, why do you do this?¡±


    Laurence began circulating his mana to the inner flame formation once again and power flooded back into him. When he could finally move again he said ¡°It¡¯s so I get better at my skill. Father always taught me that a person should only do something if they intend to be excellent at it. I intend to be the best at understanding this book, no matter what.¡±


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    Once Laurence had recuperated he took a look at the knife. It was complete, and the moment someone injected mana into it, the weapon would belch flame out of its tip and elongate its range instantly. It allowed for a smoother control of the elements in these gems that Laurence could find everywhere, and Laurence¡¯s plan with the knife was to make it a very special weapon. He took three more gemstones and whittled them down into two pins and a marble. The first pin was a piece of ?Tornado Diamond?, which Laurence quickly injected his mana into and turned into a key piece for the knife. He then took a nereid aquamarine pin and turned it into the second key piece. The final gem, the marble, was a stone of treantite. This piece was special, and would be where Laurence tried his first enchantment. To enchant was to inject the nature of a book into a weapon. In a person who had skill with the book it would either allow them to use the book at a slightly higher tier of skill or it would allow them to use the special ability of the book at a reduced mana cost. In a person who did not know the book it would allow them to use the special ability at a base level.


    Laurence took the gem and placed it against his book of creation then began forcing his mana through the gem, into the book and then back into his body, circulating the inner flame formation at the same time. Supposedly the stronger you were, the quicker you could enchant an element, but it only took Laurence ten cycles of the inner flame formation to finish the gem. Floating inside the marble lay a small hammer, of the same ilk as the one on Laurence¡¯s red book. With this ready Laurence knew that everything was prepared. He took one of the strips of the Orik left over from the skin that he had cured, and began wrapping the leather around the hilt of the knife. Once he had reached the end of the leather strip and made sure that the leather itself was all secure, he formed three holes in the leather and stuck the pins inside. Finally Laurence inserted the marble into the hilt and smiled as the weapon in front of him was completed.


    He looked at the completed knife and smiled, rather proud of himself. ¡°Is it done?¡± Said Yun.


    ¡°It is little brother.¡± Laurence replied. ¡°I think we should finally get moving now. I took an entire day to prepare this knife, the worst part is I am not even going to use it.¡±


    ¡°Why? Why make it?¡± Yun was confused.


    ¡°Simple. To make myself better at my craft. If I want to become the best creation immortal I have to practice and apply my knowledge. Unapplied knowledge is wasted knowledge, and I don¡¯t want to waste the book.¡± He put the knife on the floor in the middle of the cavern. ¡°I¡¯m sorry knife, I leave you here in the hope that someone finds you and names you. You¡¯re going to find a good home someday.¡± He stood up and looked at his brother. ¡°Shall we have a look at the rest of this cavern then, Yun?¡±


    ¡°Yes!¡± The wolf barked.

 Chapter 23: The Tuinians

    The caverns stretched on for miles, each flickering with colour from the gem veins that flowed through them like blood. There were openings in the maze of tunnels that contained settlements of numerous variety, each with a different group of people and role in the world. The most numerous was the Tuinia race. They were a species that had evolved surviving off the energy in the rocks. Their physical needs were few, but they had found that sometimes people would come through the tunnels with strange trinkets. If not given a trinket then the Tuinia would quickly become aggressive and violent. That was their way, and was how Laurence found them a few days after moving on from the knife.


    Standing in the tunnel, barring Laurence''s way stood two men. They were both short of stature but wide set, and had an eerie pale glow to their skin. This glow had come from the salamandrite deposits that could be found in most of the caves, and was just one more oddity in these odd caverns that stretched for eternity. The two young men looked at Laurence and Yun, then said ¡°Prize.¡± with a grunt. The boy looked at his friend and then back at the Tuinia in front of him. He had confusion plastered all over his face.


    ¡°I don''t know what you mean.¡± He replied.


    ¡°Prize.¡± They said again, this time more aggressively. There was no way for Laurence to know that the prize the Tuinia were asking for would be anything he could give them. However just asking for a prize was a bit much for Laurence to take. He had been taught by his father that people get what they deserve, and if someone wanted a present they should deserve it.


    ¡°Prize!¡± The men growled. They were getting angry now, to them it was important that they get something to pass their rite of passage and Laurence was not being cooperative. The excess aggression caused by the Tuinia began to agitate Yun, and he growled back. Now almost a meter tall, the young wolf was an imposing mass of fur and muscle. He pulled his jaw into a rictus grin and let out a throaty rumble at the idea of fighting. The Tuinia both shrunk back at the growl, showing a large amount of fear and no small amount of outrage. They pulled two blades each out of the sides of their bodies and took a battle stance. ¡°Prize or fight!¡± They said with finality.


    ¡°Oh! You want a toll!¡± Exclaimed Laurence. He quickly pulled out his bag and rifled through it. finally ending on two carved treantite curios that he had made. Neither of them had any power, but they were beautiful statues of plants that he had made to practice fine control of trueforming. He handed them the statues and the Tuinia looked at him, then the statues and then back at him, with confusion on their faces. They were not really prepared for the eventuality that someone might simply not understand them, rather than be unwilling to part with their ¡®prize¡¯.


    ¡°Toll?¡± Said the one on the left, pointing at the statue of a sapling tree. ¡°Prize.¡± He said more definitely.


    ¡°Toll or Prize.¡± Said Laurence, pointing at the sapling as well. The two Tuinia began getting excited and grabbed at the boy. They pointed towards the tunnel they were standing in front of and began pulling Laurence that way.


    ¡°Camp!¡± They said, then began conversing with each other in an odd clicking sound. The two pulled the boy and his dog towards what appeared to be their home. What was presented was a village of sorts, built into one of the larger cavernous areas. It was a colourful place, filled with patterned gemstones and odd bric-a-brac that gave the entire settlement a lively, and almost festive feel. Small Tuinian children ran about everywhere, playing some obscure game where the end goal seemed to be giggling on the floor in a heap. To Laurence, the place was idyllic.


    At the centre of the cavern stood a giant multicoloured vein that looked like a tree. It spread over the entire village and they seemed to worship it like a deity. Around its roots were scattered thousands of objects and skulls. Each object under the tree had at least one skull next to it, while some had two. There was obviously some significance to the objects with the skulls, but it escaped Laurence. The gem tree was nothing less than beautiful. The more Laurence looked at it, the more he wanted to make a miniature version to carry with him. He looked up and followed the tornado diamond trunk to its branches and saw the leaves were a fifth gemstone that he had not come across before. It piqued Laurence''s interest, so he began planning a way to climb the tree.


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    ¡°You come Chief!¡± Said the tree-statue Tuinian. He pointed at the gaudiest home in the cavern and led the boy there. Yun would have gone with him but he was set upon by children before he got the chance, and by rubbing his belly they managed to distract him entirely.


    The inside of the chief''s home was much the same as the outside. It was gaudy, bright, and most of the objects within were an eclectic mess. There was no rhyme or reason to the objects in the room, but they obviously had value to the chief.


    Laurence sat on a chair opposite the old Tuinian male that he assumed was the chief of the tribe. The old man looked up and smiled, his entire face creasing even more than it already did.


    ¡°So. You the traveller this time.¡± His voice was even rougher than the young Tuinian who guided Laurence up to this point, but he seemed to have a more stable grasp on the common tongue. ¡°I called Windread chief of Tuinians, Challenger who you?¡±


    ¡°I''m Laurence. I''m just passing through to get to the next stele. I have to ask, that gem vein in the middle, the one that looks like a tree, what are the leaves made of?¡±


    ¡°The holy tree not your worry. You want to go to fate door? If you give prize then will give you guide. Deal?¡±


    Laurence thought about the effort required to make another statue, and the time a guide would save, then quickly decided the effort was worth it. He pulled out a shard of nereid aquamarine and began shaping it with his hands. He was trueforming, but to the leader of this tribe he seemed to be done sort of wizard. Every pass of Laurence''s hands over the stone changed its shape. It started as a relatively pointed shard and slowly came alive in the boy¡¯s hand. each pass was quicker than the last, and each pass added deeper and greater details, until finally after what felt like an hour to the boy there stood a small statue of a giant fish jumping. It was one of the fish that Laurence had observed on the primeval floor, and had etched into his mind as being particularly magnificent.


    ¡°Is this good enough?¡± He said, presenting the statue.


    The chief of these Tuinians looked at the young boy as if he was either some sort of demon or godlike being, and then just said ¡°Yes.¡± He took out a rolled up scroll and presented it to the boy. ¡°This be your guide. You follow red path and it take you to fate door.¡±


    Laurence accepted the map, and then stood up. ¡°If it is okay, I will rest up here tonight and then be on my way tomorrow.¡± The chief assented with a nod and then he left.


    When Laurence got outside he was confronted with a slew of festivities. There was green stones everywhere and the Tuinians seemed to be getting drunk off the energy in them. They were celebrating, and the source of the celebration seemed to be the two young Tuinian men that Laurence had come in with. Seeing how the town was reacting, Laurence looked up at the tree again and began thinking.


    ¡°Perhaps it was a good idea for me to stay today after all.¡± He said to no one in particular.

 Chapter 24: The Gemstone Tree

    The day rolled on, and the festivities began to slow down. Tuinians left and right were falling asleep in any place they considered comfortable. Finally the only ones left standing were Laurence and Yun. It was rare that someone would come back with a prize unharmed, so when they did the Tuinians would party until they could no longer stand. Even the children would join in.


    The entire situation was fascinating to Laurence, so for most of the night he had taken masses of notes in his codex about the civilisation he was in. He drew the area, and the tree in the center, then described his surroundings and what he assumed they meant. By the time the festival had ended he was finished. The codex had been fully updated to where he was and had been fleshed out with a variety of images.


    Drawing was Laurence''s favorite part of updating his codex. He was obsessed with making the images look as accurate as possible, so he took a great deal of time in making sure he was happy with them. When the image was done only then would he write around it, keeping things neat and clear. In his near fifty days of travel he had worked on around fifteen pages a day, and was quickly approaching his thousandth entry. More than anything, the Absolution codex was Laurence¡¯s favourite creation. It allowed him to record everything he came across, and often worked as a journal, discussing his thoughts and plans in great detail.


    He put the book back in his bag, and looked at the surroundings. It was time to find out what that fifth stone was. Laurence knew he would get in trouble if he was caught, so he waited until people would be asleep to find out. Fortunately due to the festival the Tuinians had festivities until they passed out. The coast was clear, so Laurence and Yun quickly ran towards the giant tree in the center of the cavern. They reached the base of the tree and looked up. It was sparse with branches for around one hundred meters, but then the heart of the tree branched out and was covered with beautiful black stones. They were as leaves to the myriad elemental stones that ran as the tree¡¯s trunk, veins, roots and branches.


    Laurence looked up at the nearest branch. It was over fifty meters up in the air, but if Laurence wanted to get to the canopy he would have to reach that branch. He pushed the mana from his reservoir into the muscles and bones in his legs, then sprung into the air. The boy soared into the sky and reached just below the branch, unfortunately it was not enough. He began falling and soon hit the ground with a loud crash, nearly colliding into the area filled with skulls. The ground cracked beneath his feet and he lost sensation in his legs as his body was jarred beyond what it would normally take. Laurence pulled his feet out of the ground and rubbed them to get some sensation back, finally began channeling even more mana into his legs, with greater intensity than before. The insides of his legs felt like they were brimming with flaming energy, ready to burst out at any time. He bent his knees and pushed, soaring into the air. He flew towards the the branch and sped straight past it, going even further into the tree. Eventually he landed on the trunk of the tree itself, almost twenty meters over his original target. The view was not the best he had seen in his travels so far, but it was without a doubt the most unique.


    ¡°Brother. Safe?¡± Laurence heard Yun project into his head. The wolf was getting smarter and larger with each passing day. Soon not only would the beast be the size of a bear, he would also be at least as smart as Laurence.


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    ¡°I''m safe.¡± Laurence sent back. It had taken him most of the time he was traveling with Yun, but he had begun to understand the core concepts behind the process. It turned out that this process was done by activating the tattoo on Laurence''s arm. If he fed it mana then it would allow him to pass on a message to Yun of he was nearby. The more he wanted to say, the more mana it would require, and the more mana he put in as excess, the further it could travel. Laurence had learned early on that if he did not pay attention then he would easily empty his mana reservoir into a stream of consciousness message with no target.


    Laurence grabbed holds of the trunk the moment he hit it, and began climbing up with his grip alone. Every-so-often he would accidentally drive his hands into the trunk itself, and would release a few shards of the tree onto the unsuspecting ground below, but eventually he reached the next major branch in the tree. Swinging onto the branch, Laurence edged along the branch until he reached the first black stone. Upon closer inspection, the black stone was a gemstone was made up of three extremely dark gems. One black, one purple and one brown. Laurence moved his hands over two leaves and began changing the shape of the leaf, so it was simply no longer connected to the branch anymore.


    Before even assessing them Laurence moved both leaves into his bag, and made his way down the hill. It was a long way down, further that Laurence did not feel comfortable jumping down, so he jumped to the trunk and slid down it. Near the bottom of the tree Laurence pushed away and landed more successfully than his first attempt, rolling and not leaving any impact on the ground. His job was done, and now it was time for him and Yun to leave.


    He pulled out the leaf and began looking it over as he moved towards the exit. It was a beautiful stone, within which contained a form of energy that felt incredibly familiar to Laurence. He looked at it closely as he strode out of the cavern with his friend only turning back to look at the village one more time. Unfortunately as he did he saw the chief of the settlement who noticed the gem in Laurence¡¯s hands. The Tuinian let out a roar which sounded similar to a cave collapsing. It rose his tribe and they all began staring at Laurence malevolently.


    ¡°You take from tree, we take life.¡± Yelled Windread.


    Without a moment''s thought Laurence began sprinting from the wave of rock-men that were behind him.

 Chapter 25: The Statue

    Laurence spent a lot of his time running from things. Often it was not his fault, and someone had just decided to take offence at his existence, but today he accepted he probably deserved this. He whooped at the adrenaline running through him as he rushed on towards his goal. At a normal pace he would take another forty-five days to get to the gate, but at the speed he was moving it would only take three and a half days while resting often to recover from the fatigue.


    Yun was happily keeping pace with Laurence. He was as exhilarated as his companion. A wolf would spend most of its life hunting and stalking its prey, so the amount of time that Yun spent running from things with Laurence was a novelty to his hereditary memories.


    They were still being chased by the Tuinians over a day and almost five-hundred miles since they ran from the cavern. At this point Laurence as unsure whether giving the leaf back would actually stop them at this point. Windread had been quite adamant about how they would be killed for their transgressions, but Laurence still was not really sure why the Tuinians had been so protective of the tree. He assumed it was something to do with religion, but when he learned how it would sometimes make people do crazy things for no reason he lost interest. Despite his father being a priest, he did not have the most favourable view of the religious, and it was not something that the man dissuaded in Laurence. In the end, his curiosity over the tree much outweighed his curiosity towards the society, and so his predicament occurred.


    Laurence was impressed by their perseverance, but irritated by the fact that they would not give up. While they could not travel as fast as Laurence, they did not seem to need sleep, so he lost massive amounts of ground every time he rested and restored his mana.


    ¡°What should we do about the Tuinians, Yun?¡± He said during the second night. He had been trying to think of a new option to sort out them following him, but nothing he could think of would stop them. He felt that they would follow him right up to the stele to the next floor.


    ¡°Brother? Make new tree?¡± Replied Yun.


    Laurence thought Yun was joking, but then he remembered the awe that Windread and the two other Tuinians had shown when he presented them with the statues. The more he thought about it, the better an idea it seems. ¡°That¡¯s brilliant, brother!¡± He replied. ¡°It¡¯s so simple, I don¡¯t know why it wasn¡¯t the first thing I thought of.¡±


    ¡°Because brother was busy.¡± Yun paused. ¡°They are coming.¡± Yun could smell them coming from miles away, which was useful to the two friends, but it had on occasion backfired when they were upwind of a large tornado diamond vein. The diamond veins were the only thing providing air to the caverns. It seemed like the entire plane was underground, with the ebbs and flows of the day being dictated by the intensity of energy in the salamandrite veins.


    Laurence began packing up the campsite they had made to rest in, and stored it all in his bag. He had no reason to be meticulous with his clearing of the camp. For the first ten hours they had tried to scrub clean their tracks, but no matter what they were still followed. It was like the Tuinians knew exactly what path they had to follow to keep up with Laurence. They had some way to follow the boy, but how he knew not. Within a minute the only thing left of the camp was the shards of salamandrite that made up the campfire residue.


    They kept running. Each time they stopped Laurence would pull out the leaf and some other large shards of gems, shifting them into a new form. He did not need the entirety of the leaf to make his sculpture, so he broke up the leaf into its three compound materials then used half the resources of each one he had to begin trueforming. Each time he sat down to rest he would spend less than a minute shifting the materials into a new shape, the rest of the time he would spend using the Inner Flame Formation to restore his mana to its fullest and his body to its peak. It seemed like his hammer gained a greater luster with each use of the formation, and Laurence¡¯s control of his mana seemed to be improving at the same time.


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    The second day came and went, and Laurence was halfway through his creation by the end of it. He had discovered it was actually quite hard to create something without his full focus being placed upon it. Through a lot of stress, he continued running and forming, then resting and running again until he finally reached the black stele that signified his exit from this plane. He realised he had done something bad, but this was the only way he could think of to rectify his misdemeanour. He was just doing the last touch ups on the statue when the Tuinians began pouring into the room like a flood.


    With his back to the door Laurence still seemed fearless, despite being quickly surrounded by hundreds of angry clansmen. He smiled at the building crowd. Soon one would break, and attack him. He could feel it in their aggression. They were waiting for something, presumably their leader, but the man had not yet arrived. Laurence decided to talk to the crowd while he waited and formed the last few details on the statue.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I have committed a great crime against you. Please forgive me.¡±


    In response to Laurence talking there was a murmur that sounded like someone walking up a gravel path. He could not tell if it was a positive or negative murmur, but the crowd seemed to be riled up more by his words than before. Perhaps it was because of the crowd mentality, perhaps because of the way he had spoken to them, or perhaps even because they did not fully understand what he said. Only Windread had shown any real grasp of understanding when it came to the common tongue so Laurence assumed that his words were falling on deaf ears.


    ¡°In reparation for touching your great tree, I have spent time and effort constructing a small memento that I think you will appreciate.¡± He continued. The statue in his hand was glowing brightly, it was nearly complete but Laurence needed a little bit more time to complete it. He decided that talking would slow them down enough so that he would have his chance. He bet wrong.


    One of the Tuinians decided to take offence at what the boy was saying and ran at him, taking a swing with the large pick that he had been carrying. Laurence shifted to the side, still smiling but sweating a little. Soon a second Tuinian moved in on the action. He had a spear, and began thrusting it at the boy. These two kept swinging their weapons, hoping to connect and claim revenge for Laurence desecrating the tree, but each swing Laurence moved out of the way of. It became like a dance, with the boy dodging at the last moment. Eventually their screams of rage at the futility of their current actions summoned their leader.


    Laurence looked Windread in the eyes and said ¡°A gift for you all.¡± Then he placed the statue on the ground. He bowed and walked through the doorway behind him, leaving the Tuinians to stare at the beautiful miniature statue of their sacred tree. Windread walked over to the statue and carefully picked it up. He held the statue high in the air and let out a roaring rumble of joy. Today would be a fortuitous day to the Tuinian people of the gem tree.

 Chapter 26: The Fourth Test

    The fourth test room was like the others, it showed the same motif as the floor before it, but intensified to the nth degree. When Laurence and Yun walked into the area they were confronted by walls and floors of gemstone. Everywhere their eyes moved was sheathed in crystal. It was beautiful, but screamed decadence in a way that nothing natural could. Laurence turned to look at his canine friend and smiled, thinking how lucky they were to get out of the situation without spilling any blood.


    ¡°Name, age, species and time spent travelling.¡± Said a loud and rather lifeless voice from beside the two companions. They turned and were confronted with a veritable giant of a man. Everything about him was enormous, from his hands that were the size of Laurence¡¯s chest to his arms and legs which were as thick as young tree trunks. ¡°Come on, not all of us have all day.¡± He said, his deep voice vibrating in Laurence''s chest.


    ¡°My name is Laurence, I''m seven years old, I''m a human and I''ve been traveling up Babel for fifty five days now. How did you get to be so tall? I mean my daddy is a big man, but you''re huge!¡± The man astounded Laurence so much that he had to pull out his codex immediately and begin drawing him.


    ¡°Boy, Laurence, I am going to tell you about...¡± Try as he might to not, the boy just suddenly drawing him made him feel self-conscious. ¡°Stop drawing while I talk to you. It''s rude.¡± Laurence drew a few more strokes then put his stylus down. ¡°Good. I assume you¡¯re one of those golden children that come through here every so often. The next test is a test of your potential. I won¡¯t tell you more about it than you have to know, but your dog companion passes if you do.¡±


    ¡°Okay, so are you going to answer my questions?¡± Replied Laurence, not particularly caring about the vague description of the test. He would find out about it on his own, but he wanted to know about this mountain of a man in front of him. He continued to stare as the giant man as the minutes began to tick by, finally the huge man broke at the uncompromising stare of the child.


    ¡°Fine, fine. I¡¯m a giant. I was born big, and only got bigger.¡± The giant man paused. ¡°Happy now?¡±


    Laurence smiled, happily opening his book and writing something down. ¡°Yes. I am. Where do you want me to go for the test then?¡±


    The giant despaired at the young boy and his perseverance. It was like the moment he found out what he wanted to know he would move on to the next thing that interested him. ¡°Child, just go through the gateway in front of you. You¡¯ll see the past, present and future. If you can get out then you pass. Simple as that.¡±


    Without a thought, Laurence walked into the gateway in front of him. There was a bright flash of light and he was presented with an image of his past. He was five years old, his father had just found out that he had found his way into the kennels for the third time. It had been a long day for Laurence, as he had been confined to his room for the rest of the afternoon. Eventually his father sat him down to deal with the problem at hand. Laurence liked his father. He always treated the boy fairly, even when Laurence had done something very wrong.


    Laurence looked up sheepishly as his father bent in front of him, his hulking frame still dwarfing the boy. He rubbed Laurence¡¯s head, messing up the boy¡¯s hair and said ¡°Law, you should know that we don¡¯t tell you things for the sake of it. There is always a reason behind it.¡± He frowned. ¡°Please, son, don¡¯t go into the kennels without a supervisor. If one of the dogs injures you and you can¡¯t get out then it could end badly for both you and the dog. I know you like them, so if you want to go and see any of your canine friends then just tell me or your mother. We will happily take you.¡±


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    Laurence grinned. He had already found out what he wanted to know about the dogs anyway, so he happily agreed to not bother his father with sneaking into the kennels. Another idle thought struck him though. Before he had even had time to process the thought he said ¡°Daddy, why do some of the dogs have wee-wees, but others not?¡±


    The image faded into nothingness and he was confronted by himself floating in front of him. The other Laurence opened his eyes and smiled. It was a very crooked smile, like something was missing from the boy, but Laurence had no idea what. He looked at his clone and tried to work out if there was anything different other than that odd smile. While he was still looking the clone opened his mouth. ¡°So, Laurence. You really don¡¯t feel any connection to yourself do you?¡± The clone seemed to be slightly taken aback by Laurence¡¯s response to its existence.


    ¡°Why should I? You obviously aren¡¯t me because I am, so I am trying to work out what you are.¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m people¡¯s perception of you. An odd child with no emotional connection to anyone except an odd wolf. Do you even think your parents might be worried about you? Do you not even wonder if they care?¡± Something ancient flashed behind the eyes of Laurence¡¯s double. It wanted to know these answers as much as Laurence wanted to know what the double really was.


    ¡°Why does that matter though? I can only find out if they care or are worried about me by asking them and they aren¡¯t here. Why would I be worried at all?¡± Laurence was thoroughly confused by the being that had taken his form. It was asking questions that were really rather simple for Laurence to answer, but they felt like they should be much harder or deeper in concept than they were. It was the first time that he had encountered something like this, that was obvious to him, but odd to the inquirer.


    ¡°Do you not have empathy, child? Is that missing from you?¡±


    ¡°What¡¯s empathy?¡± Laurence had never come across the word before. He was obviously lacking in something the creature was looking for but he had no idea. Now he was interested. Why did he not tick like the creature in his form expected? Was it something wrong with him or with humans?


    ¡°Empathy is the emotion that connects you to people. If you hurt someone you should feel bad about it, and if someone does something positive or negative then you should emote with them. It¡¯s one of the better parts of the human survival mechanisms.¡± Laurence¡¯s double thought about something for a while. Eventually he just began walking away and said, ¡°This is a vision of your future. If you wish to change it you must change your nature. Though not all visions are as they seem.¡±


    The double faded into nothingness and Laurence was once more presented with himself. Older, he looked stronger. He was facing a red haired child, who was splayed on the ground after a fight. They were in the middle of an arena, and a crowd was roaring. He raised the hammer and swung, the image cutting to darkness. Laurence was surprised by this image. The being that had taken his form was not adamant about how the vision would be bad, but he did imply it heavily. So heavily that Laurence could not help but pick up on it. Would this be a bad thing? He wondered as he walked through the exit gateway and reunited with his friend.

 Chapter 27: The Path of Fire

    The field in front of Laurence was burning. As far as the eye could see flames licked, fluttered, spat and spluttered, curling around stones and hills. The area was a veritable purgatory, and Laurence¡¯s pointer stone said that it would take almost one hundred days, over three months to get to the next stele. He was stood on a platform that seemed to be shielded from the flickering flames. Taking a step out into the flames, Laurence felt the heat and could smell the scorching of the hair on his skin. He pulled himself back onto the plinth and sat down, thinking about the nature of the plane in front of him.


    Yun pushed out of the protected area and began playing outside in the flames. He smiled at his friend as he began chasing his tail around a lava plume. The flames send to do nothing to the wolf. It was incredible for Laurence to see, as he had no idea how Yun could stand those flames. After a few minutes of playing outside Yun turned and looked expectantly at Laurence.


    ¡°Brother not understand?¡± He said directly into Laurence''s head. They had tested the speech ability that they seemed to share when they first got the power, and they could not find an upper limit to it. Seeing Laurence''s continued lack of understanding, Yun sent a projection of the book of creation, where it dictated and described the Inner Flame Formation. Laurence recognised the page, but the line that Yun had put specific emphasis on was not what Laurence was expecting.


    To practice the formation, it began, one must draw a flame from within. However to restore your soul you can draw from within or without. Laurence realised he was being a fool. In front of him was not a massive wall of pain and burning, but rather a giant battery for him to be able to restore his mana indefinitely from. He felt like a fool for not understanding the fact that mana and the soul of a person were effectively the same thing. Taking a deep breath and circulating the formation, Laurence walked out into the hellscape. He whooped with joy when rather than pain and a sickly smell, an absorbing sensation and a feeling of fullness passed through him.


    Seeing how much mana the boy had at his disposal, Laurence could not resist the urge to begin trueforming. He danced about, feeling elated at the ease of control the surrounding flames gave him, yet perplexed at the fact that he had no materials that could survive the intense heat around him. Finally he perused through the Book of Creation in his mind''s eye, and found the section on unconventional resources. He saw that a master of the Book of Creation could turn anything they wanted into a weapon or artifact, which is when he had a brain wave. The flame itself was fueling Laurence, letting off heat and light that he could absorb and turn into mana. Perhaps he could turn part of the fire into a material that he could use to make an artifact with.


    Turning his mind''s eye to the outside world, Laurence began looking at what he wanted to use and thinking about what he wanted to make. He finally began pulling the light from the surrounding fires as he walked and collected them between his hands. Once he decided he had enough material in his palms he began shifting the photons into the skin of his left hand. Each photon was shaped into a glyph, which in turn was shaped into another glyph on Laurence''s hand. These streams of glyphs were constantly entering his body and draining his mana reservoir dry, but immediately the reservoir would be restored to full by the surroundings. With each cycle his hammer gained a greater luster, and his reservoir was able to take in and hold more mana. This plane was the perfect place for Laurence to train, and he could not have enjoyed himself more.


    The glyph continued construction for an entire day while the boy and his canine friend frolicked within the fire. Even Yun was improving from the situation. His body was growing by the hour and his fur was taking on an incomparable white luster. By the end of their first day Laurence had completed his creation and Yun had grown to the size of a bear. He was a hulking wolf, and Laurence was worried that he might grow even bigger, but was not willing to stop him. The flames nourishing them meant that they did not have to worry about food at all, which surprised Laurence. It also meant that he could spend more time making tools. Once it was ready, he began testing the tool. The object he created using pure light, was a tattoo imprinted into the palm of his left hand. Injecting mana into it, Laurence willed a beam of light out of his palm and shifted it like a rope once it reached the apex of its length, over a hundred meters in length. Sending small pulses of mana through the rope of light he could change its direction and density, allowing it to be a harmless beam of light or a writhing light tentacle that could bind a target with merely a thought.


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    Laurence swung the light-rope towards Yun, to see if he could catch his friend unawares, but despite his massive bulk the wolf shifted out of the way with ease. He sent a pulse through the rope as Yun dodged to the side and sent the beam between the wolf¡¯s legs and round his waist. Without a moment''s thought he pulled the beam back and yanked Yun with it.


    Realising that Yun was now coming towards Laurence far faster than he would like, he sent another pulse of mana through the beam to make it intangible and it slid straight through his friend¡¯s body. He dropped to the ground as Yun came within touching distance of him, and watched the young wolf fly over his head. Shooting out the rope once more, Laurence grabbed his friend and pulled him back enough to stop him flying off, before allowing the rope to become light again.


    ¡°What should I call you then?¡± Said Laurence as he looked at his tattoo. In Laurence''s mind, every weapon or artifact should have a name, and this tattoo was no exception. He felt like it should have a name from one of the old languages, but his grasp of them was nonexistent. In the end he called the tattoo ?Inklight?. It was profoundly literal, but seemed right to the young boy.


    They continued traveling and improving their power until they both reached bottlenecks in their growth. Laurence''s hammer seemed to no longer be made of iron, but fine steel. It was incomparably hard and it could become far heavier if Laurence willed it. Yun, on the other hand, had stopped growing when he was comparable in stature to a large bear. His muscles and bones seemed to change the most, becoming incredibly tough and durable, while his fur became as strong as spider silk. Together they were death on six legs. After about forty days they reached a mountain. It was the only real piece of terrain that the two had seen since they started traveling on this plain. It stuck out like a sore thumb in the landscape, and because of that Laurence had an irresistible urge to climb it. They quickly reached the wall that made the mountain hard to climb. It was a sheer face, but rugged, unlike all the other ground in the area. The rest of the surrounding land was charred and melted, but somehow this mountain had stood up to the flames. Laurence prepared himself for the jump, stretching and slowly circulating mana into his muscles before bracing himself against the wall and promptly falling through it.


    He looked at the surrounding area with shock and awe. It was a beautiful and serene landscape, with small hills and pretty trees. A stream ran through the middle of the area, pooling into a little lake with a house next to it. Laurence rubbed his eyes a few times to make sure he was not dreaming. It was unbelievable to think that in the middle of this world of fire stood a little slice of heaven, and yet here it was.


    He called to Yun from the other side of the wall, telling him it was just an illusion and that he could just walk through. The wolf was hesitant at first, but yipped with joy at the surroundings when he saw them. They were a true break from the flames, the heat and the slightly sulphurous stench that had surrounded the two friends for the last few weeks. They reveled in it as long as they could before going towards the riverside hut and greeting the inhabitants of this beautiful place. The hut was well built, if slightly eclectic. It had obviously been built and then systematically improved over hundreds of years before it had reached its current state of repair.


    It was a two story house that extended over the lake a little ways, with a platform set up for fishing. The front of the house was raised and had a little stairwell leading up to the door with a swing chair set up next to a pile of books, while the front door itself was intricately carved with image of a great eye residing over a man bowing his head either in reverence or shame. It was beautiful. Outside the house was a small stone building set up with a funds in the centre of the wall furthest from the entrance. The furnace constantly belched vibrant flames, giving the smithy that it was part of a jolly feeling.


    Laurence was quietly examining the smithy when he heard a voice behind him. ¡°I would rather you didn''t touch those.¡± The voice was very well spoken, with a crisp sound to it that implied the owner was not used to being disobeyed. Laurence turned round and was presented with a young looking man, his white hair and old eyes being the only things that made him seem anything more than twenty.


    ¡°Umm, sorry. I was going to come and say hello but I got distracted by the beautiful skill of everything made here.¡± Laurence said.


    ¡°That''s perfectly fine my boy! My name is Luke Jeshua. What¡¯s yours?"

 Chapter 28: Luke Jeshua

    Laurence was enthralled by Luke. He was the first real immortal that the boy had ever knowingly met, and constantly bombarded him with questions about immortality. Eventually he sat Laurence and Yun down and asked if he would like to hear a story. Laurence agreed without a second¡¯s thought, so sat down with a warm drink and listened to the man talk.


    ¡°In the beginning...¡± He began. He spoke with a sombreness that that seemed to imply he missed the beginning of all things. ¡°In the beginning there was nothing. Nothing but the stone and the void. Nothing to see or hear, to eat or even breathe. Nothing but cold, hard, rock and an abyss of emptiness.¡± Luke stood at his kitchen area and began making some food. He brought out the leg of an animal from a storage space of his and began preparing it as he spoke.


    "That was all there was, all there could be until the eye opened, until it reared it''s head for the first time.¡± He began to pound the meat, tenderising the leg beyond what was needed. ¡°For thirty days the eye comprehended only why it lived. It could do no else. Each moment of the day it would spend introspecting and analysing, until finally on the thirtieth day it knew ?Life?.¡± He stopped pounding the meat and began roughly putting in shards of a root vegetable that looked very much like garlic. ¡°This is why each month has thirty days.


    ¡°Once it knew what it was, it decided it needed a name. It called itself Babel and decide that it was a she.¡± Luke stabbed six pieces of garlic into the leg at equidistant points, each time pushing his thumb into the beast until it was past his first knuckle. ¡°Babel decided that she needed to understand more than just herself, so she looked at what she was not.¡± He pulled out some salt and began crushing it with great gusto. ¡°She spent ten months on this. Ten whole months, until she finally knew ?Death? and all that it contained. This is why ten months is a year to us.¡±


    Once the salt had been crushed to fine powder, Luke grabbed some herbs from the side and tore them to shreds, before adding them to the powder. ¡°Babel knew what she was, and what she was not. She knew life and death in their most intimate and purest forms, but that was all she knew. She craved more, so she looked out into the world she was part of. She stared into the void, looking, studying and analysing, until finally she saw the primal nature of things. She witnessed the elements in their most basic forms and knew ?Chaos?.¡± With the herbal salt mixture that he created, Luke began to rub the animal leg down. He was as vigorous with this as he had been with everything else. It was like he was still trying to hurt the animal, even though it had long since died.


    ¡°She understood the building blocks of reality, but lacked the way they connected together to form everything, or anything. So once again she looked. She observed the elements and how they interacted until she had seen as many permutations as there could be. She saw that there was a beautiful unity in the way that the elements connected, but she still did not know why they connected like they did. Finally she saw the fundamental laws that make up our universe and understood ?Order?.


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    ¡°She was getting closer to the understanding she sought after, she could feel it. However it eluded her grasp. For days she could not see what she was missing. Days turned into weeks and weeks became months. For the first time in her life, Babel was directionless. Eventually, in a fit of rage, she destroyed the earth and watched it shatter. She destroyed half the world she knew so she could understand more.¡± There was pride in Luke¡¯s voice as he says this. Pride, when before there had only been slowly tempered rage. He began covering the roast in oil and putting a variety of vegetables on the tray he had set up.


    ¡°With this one act...¡± He continued, as he put the tray of food in the oven he had prepared. ¡°With this one act she realised what she had been missing. With rage she understood ?Destruction?. She began driving everything she knew, everything there was to ruin. She only stopped when there was nothing left to destroy. Once more feeling empty,she knew there was something else left in the universe for her to understand. However she could not fill the void until she got an idea stuck in her mind. She had to fill the void somehow, fill it with everything in her mind and allow it to progress like she did. She laid the foundations and began creating her great tower of layered realities.


    ¡°The moment she began constructing the magnum opus that would be known by her name she gained the knowledge of ?Creation?. And so, five years and thirty days after she first opened her eyes she became sovereign of all. With her great knowledge she created the boundless earths and the land on high, then sat on her throne at the top of the tower ushering in the second cycle.¡±


    Laurence sat while Luke told the story, completely enraptured. He had heard the story before, but the version his father had always told him was different in tone. The way Laurence''s father spoke of ¡®the first¡¯, who he assumed to be Babel, bordered on reverence. Luke, on the other hand, spoke of the story like he hated her. He just sat for a minute, scratching between Yun¡¯s ears, and thought about the differences in the stories. Finally he spoke. ¡°Your story is slightly different to the one I know.¡±


    ¡°I''m sure it is.¡± Luke replied. ¡°It''s only the first half of the story too. Do you want to hear the second half?¡±


    ¡°Of course!¡± Said the young boy, eyes bright at the idea of learning something new about his world''s creation myth.

 Chapter 29: Fallen Kings And Golden Children

    ¡°During the sixth cycle, or maybe it was the fifth, the queen of all eternity began feeling something she had never felt before.¡± Luke said, his voice laden with mockery. ¡°She began to feel lonely. It snuck up on her, nibbling at her mind that she did not actually have anyone to discuss everything with. Finally, after a century of thought, she broke and decided to make a vessel that she could discourse with about all of reality. It took her over an hour, which is a long time for her to do anything of this ilk, but eventually she thought she had the companion made perfectly.


    ¡°It would be a companion who she could teach and who would be able to communicate with the beings that had begun to develop in her tower. She based it on the most prolific of the species, the human, for that reason, and gifted it with cognitive powers beyond normal capability so it could learn languages in moments. The companion would be her true masterpiece, a living thing that could contend with her on an intellectual level. Finally she decided that it should be her opposite, in almost all senses, so made the companion a male and gifted him with the ?Book of All?. What she ended up forming was a young boy with bright blue eyes and soft blond hair.


    ¡°This boy was like a son to Babel.¡± Luke continued, releasing his hands and smiling sadly. ¡°He was doted on by her, and taught everything that he could take. He learned more than any other being could from her or the book, and began taking up a stance to eternity that was the opposite of his mother¡¯s. It was exactly what she intended, but soon she discovered that despite all her knowledge, it was not what she wanted. They began discourses that devolved into arguments, and finally rows bloomed from the ashes of the original discussion.


    ¡°Despite their arguments the boy learned all he could. He wanted to make his mother proud, to make her understand his point of view. He wanted for her to see that he was right, despite how much younger he was than her, he could still put forward just as valid points and understood everything just as well as she did. So he took his book and began to absorb its contents. He rose in power as his understanding of everything bloomed and his conviction in his view became more and more firm.¡±


    There was a momentary pause in Luke¡¯s tale that Laurence took advantage of. ¡°But what was their argument about?¡± He asked the wistful looking man. It was obvious that Luke was avoiding certain details about the story, but Laurence could not work out what, or how to ask. In the end he asked to see if Luke would divulge on his own terms.


    ¡°He never said. All I know is that if I asked him now, many millennia after he first argued with his mother, he might have changed his mind.¡± Luke paused and cocked his head to the side, now more thoughtful than wistful. ¡°However, he also might be even more obstinate about the point. People are like that though. Once someone is convinced of something it takes a lot to change their mind. Either way, the boy, now a man, had become beyond competent and had evolved his soul and body to the peak of immortality. He just had one step to take and he would become on par with his mother, one more thing to master and he would be a true god like her. Unfortunately his aspiration was scuppered at the last step.


    ¡°The day he completed the fifth path, his path of ?Chaos? she took the book from him. She claimed that it was so that he could finish this path of his on his own, but he knew otherwise. It was her final act of control over him and he hated her for it.¡± Luke spat the last few words with a venom unparalleled in his speech so far. ¡°In response the man did the only thing he could do to get back at Babel. He left. He walked out of their home and began climbing the tower, looking at all the things his mother had created. Everything he found forced his view more and more into the forefront of his mind. It made him bubble and seethe that his mother did not understand that she was wrong, he truly believed that he was right. Finally he snapped. He could take no more, but could only vent his hundreds of years of pent up rage upon his mother¡¯s creation. He had no way of matching up to her so instead he began obliterating everything in his surroundings. In three days he had obliterated half a plane of the tower. It wasn¡¯t that he had ruined and made it unlivable, he had actually removed it from existence. It was something that was previously thought impossible beforehand but he was a ?Five Path Master?, one who had mastered five book paths, which had never existed before. He was on a warpath and there was almost nothing that could stop him. He wiped out swathes of land and killed millions of people but still no one could stand against him. In the end he was forced back by the connected power of the six great clans, and bound by a great manifestation formed from the lives of three Hephaistia clan elders. Their creation was a seal, one that could only be broken if the bloodline of the three elders died out, or if there were six book paths used as a key to the seal. They then cast him out into the unknown lands that he had ruined, reforming them as best as their powers would let them.¡±


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    Laurence realised he knew the story as it ended, it was one that his father had told him not too long before he left. ?The Fallen King?, the legend about the man who fell from the peak of power to the lands below and wreaked havoc amidst the masses. ¡°I recognise both of these stories!¡± He says excitedly at Luke.


    ¡°Huh. If that''s the case then why aren''t you sad about it? A normal child would be sad or bored by an old story.¡± Luke replied. Apparently Laurence¡¯s reaction had confused him.


    ¡°I have heard the stories before, but these are very different versions of what I know. In the version of ?The Fallen King? that I know, the king is sealed by three Ascendant Immortals permanently. It''s also not related in any way to the creation myth.¡±


    ¡°That kind of annoys me.¡± Said Luke in reply. ¡°Without those two parts, it''s an incomplete tale. Tell me, Laurence, how do they portray the Fallen Morning if they don''t go over his reasons for destruction?¡±


    ¡°He''s treated as though he''s a madman, or a rabid animal. The story spends a lot of time over the hunt for him, and a little on his sealing. In fact it ends just after he is sealed, which confused me a little as there was no rounding off to the story. It seemed to end abruptly.¡±


    ¡°Life happens like that. Not every path leads to closure and some people never come back into the tale. That I...¡± He paused, as if internally correcting himself. ¡°That I have a different, less popularised version of the story annoys me. For one thing, mine feels more complete.¡±


    ¡°I like yours more, though that could be because it''s a new version of a story. I may be... biased? I think that''s the right word.¡±


    Luke laughed. ¡°Yes. You''re a smart child, Laurence. Did you know that?¡±


    ¡°That''s only because I like learning. I''m not smart compared to an adult in most things.¡± He smiled sheepishly. ¡°I don''t even know how to get myself out of trouble most of the time, and I get into it a lot.¡±


    ¡°That''s something you don''t lose with age, you just get in different kinds of trouble. Don''t worry, Laurence. You''re a talented child, and you could easily become a Heaven rank before you are twenty.¡±


    ¡°But that''s ages away! I''m only seven, that''s double my entire life so far at least!¡±


    ¡°You should not be too impatient. Most people with talent wouldn''t reach Heaven rank before they are fifty, while a normal person who cultivates would have to be at least a hundred before they can think about Heaven. Only a golden child had such a chance, one who was born to wield the power of the world''s way.¡±


    ¡°I am supposedly a golden child of the Absolution clan, but my father was never clear about what that actually meant.¡± Laurence sighed. He had a lot to ask his father, but no way to actually do it. It annoyed him more than he actually realised.


    ¡°You''re supposed to be a golden child, yet you don''t know what one is? That''s ridiculous. I may as well teach you about them then, so what would you like to know about them?¡±

 Chapter 30: The Value of a Child

    ¡°Anything. What actually are they? Why did they come into existence? Is there anything better than a golden child? What am I missing to reach my next stage in cultivation? I want to know a lot of things, but those are the big ones at the moment.¡±


    Luke looked at the young boy who kept him company for the first time in millennia and could not help but feel happy. This child was full of potential and inquisitive beyond common sense. Luke was was interested to see where the boy could go if given the right kind of guidance, even if he was an average golden child.


    ¡°You are pretty much the average golden child.¡± He began. He did not want to put down Laurence, but the boy deserved to know that he was not the best of the best, even if he was the best of the rest. ¡°That is not a bad thing, as golden children make up the best males and females of the year that they are born in. The best golden children manifest their souls and become Saints at the age of six and the worst at the age of eight. Apparently before you turn six your body is not able to take the energy and so children with the potential for sainthood at that age are sealed until they are at least six, else they become crippled by their own power.


    ¡°Golden children are called as such because in what I believe was the third cycle, when the eight clans of way were first created, the clans still used gold as their metric for value. Children who could cultivate to Saint before the age of ten were considered ¡®as valuable as a gold mine¡¯. They were, and are, the only people who were definitely capable of reaching immortality, whether normal or Ascendant. It meant that they were valued as future powerhouses and potentially valuable resource gatherers for their clans.¡±


    ¡°So golden children are valuable because of their growth speed and potential? That seems a bit mean to the children who are smart, but not good cultivators. It even seems a bit mean to the other children who are not quite as good as the golden children. Why do they get excluded?¡± Laurence was confused by this idea. To him, if you were a day faster, then you were just as good as the person who was a day slower than you. You might even be worse than the person behind you if you work less than your competitors.


    ¡°Essentially yes. The golden children are the best of the best. They might have odd idiosyncrasies but they are rigorously tested from the age of five, and then thrown to the dogs the day they become Saints. Often there will be hundreds of children competing to gain the title of ¡®golden¡¯. This is because the children will not be let out of the pocket dimension that the clan lives in if they are not golden children or at least peak saints by the age of twenty-five. Often their wanderlust drives them on to manifest quicker, though you seem to have manifested of your own volition quickly without need external stimulus. You''re definitely the best of the average golden children, but still not as excellent as some who have been.¡±


    Luke paused to check the food in the oven. It was cooking away happily, so he closed it and continued talking. ¡°In answer to your next question, there is something more than a golden child. Once a cycle a child is born at Saint level. These children have to have their cultivation sealed, but it is usually unsealed around their seventh year. They are almost always golden children, but do not show any more potential until they reach Heaven rank. Once they reach Heaven rank, these rare children will become Immortals far quicker than anyone else, and if they are given one of the ?Books of The World? they have not studied, then they could become Immortals within a year of reaching Heaven. They are all destined to become the next leaders of the clans they are born into and so are called ¡®Little Rulers¡¯.¡±


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    ¡°So I could be a Little Ruler?¡± Laurence said. The idea of being someone who was akin to a great hero of old, like the great leaders of the clans were, was enticing.


    ¡°You could be, but it is unlikely. For one thing, you would have been told from a young age that you were a little ruler. But for the second, if you were adopted and not told, then you likely would never actually be able to cultivate. The seal used, unless it has changed since I was last in contact with the clans, servers you from the energy of heaven and earth. It allows for the powerful energy that the child is born with to be absorbed into their bones and muscles without there being too much for them to handle. That is not to say that you won''t do well. You''re a peak Saint before you turned eight years old. You''ve done incredibly well for yourself, and all only grow more powerful as you get older.¡±


    ¡°Thanks, but it does not help me with my current problem.¡± Laurence sighed. Since meeting Damascus he had tried to make one of the Manifestations, but each attempt failed. At first it was because he could not trueform well enough, then it became because he had too small a mana reservoir. Now he just could not find one that felt right. The boy had looked through all the manifestations and tried to make them, but at the thirtieth he realised that none of them fit him.


    ¡°You said you were of the Absolution clan, correct?¡± Said Luke, snapping Laurence out of his irritable stupor.


    ¡°Yes, though I don''t see how that will help.¡±


    ¡°Well if you are having trouble with Restoration, then it might just be easier for you to start with an animal corpse and try to use mana to return it to peak condition before trying it on anything living. That way you will be able to build up your multitasking to deal with the tumours.¡±


    ¡°What''s Restoration?¡±


    Luke looked blankly at Laurence before slowly coming to a realisation that Laurence was not the average Absolution clan member.

 Chapter 31: Regards

    ¡°You truly don''t know what ?Restoration? is? Do you not practice the ?Way of Life??¡± With two words, Laurence had managed to actually stun Luke. A lot could be said about the clans of way, but in Luke¡¯s mind cross-pollination was not one of them. It was so out of character that they would let one of their children study another path before the Way of Life that he felt there had to be something going on.


    ¡°No. I practice with the ?Book of Creation?. Why would I know anything about this way of life?¡±


    ¡°Because that is the practice method of the Absolution clan. Are you secretly a Hephaistia child? Or are you some sort of test to gain control of the six books?¡± Luke scratched his chin and then checked on the food again. It was almost ready at this point so he got some plates and cutlery out, then set the oak table they were sitting at. ¡°This is food for thought. A very interesting development indeed.¡±


    Laurence frowned. ¡°All I know is my father''s name is Angus Absolution, my mother¡¯s is Maris Morgana Absolution, and that I am from Ribec village, in a region outside of the tower. Mother always said that father was an important member of the clan we were part of, but never said how. So it is possible that I am an experiment.¡± He shrugged.


    ¡°You seem awfully calm about this. You do realise that being a test subject is a bad thing, right?¡±


    ¡°Why would I be bothered by it, though? Even if it is a bad thing, or something that could have bad results, I can''t change who I have become. So why worry about it. Worrying won''t fix it, and if I let my worries consume me I would probably go mad.¡± Laurence looked at Luke sadly. It was the first time Luke had actually seen a negative emotion on the child''s face. For some reason it seemed slightly forced, as if Laurence was doing it intentionally. ¡°Either way, I study the Book of Creation, I know I need to make a ?Manifestation?, but none of them seem right to me. I have the capability, I just seem to lack... something.¡±


    ¡°The thing you lack is experience. With any of the paths that people tread, the only way to truly work out the right choice is by experiencing many things.¡± Luke began serving the piping hot meat and roasted potatoes to the boy and the wolf. ¡°It''s kind of hard to explain to a child, because you lack the experiences that are so required for the explanation. To understand what you want and need, you have to have it, then lose it. In having a thing you can come to understand the sensation of losing it, while in losing a thing you can come to see why you wanted it in the first place.


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    ¡°This is one of the cycles of the way. To gain the future you must give up the past. Remember that.¡±


    ¡°How does this help?¡± Said Laurence. His head was beginning to hurt from all the talk of circles and want. To remedy this he took a gulp of water and stuffed his face with food, hoping that the sustenance would stop the throbbing between his eyes.


    ¡°In essence, you don''t know what you want because you don''t have enough experience to know yet. ?Manifestation? is a profoundly unique experience that is dictated by your life up to the point where you actually manifest. It will come in time, so just wait and experience the world. Have an adventure, make a name for yourself.¡±


    ¡°That makes me feel a lot better about this. I wasn''t worrying, but I might have begun to soon.¡± Said Laurence, stuffing more food into his mouth. It had been a long time since someone had actually spent time and effort cooking for him. The food itself was incredibly tasty, far more flavourful than anything he had eaten in recent memory.


    They began winding down their conversation as the food finished, and as Luke was clearing away the plates Laurence decided it was time for him and Yun to get moving. They said their goodbyes as they helped clear up and began their journey again. This time Laurence did not waste too much of his time and effort on manifesting, instead he built bizarre objects out of heat and light. He made himself a defensive bubble out of heat that he could activate with a word and a variety of sculptures that could only be seen from certain angles, or felt through difference in temperature. It was still an exhilarating experience for the boy, and as he neared the exit he told Yun that he would come back to this floor one day. The two friends reached the stele to the next floor one hundred and two days after entering, older, wiser and a lot more understanding of their place in their cultivation.


    Meanwhile, across the world, Luke Jeshua sat by his pond. He was drinking a glass of wine and absent-mindedly fishing in his lake as he thought about his visitors. They were the first visitors he had had in a long time, and that could only mean one of two things. It quickly dawned on him that one option was not possible, so he made himself comfortable and smiled thinking ¡°What an interesting visit.¡±

 Chapter 32: Co-operation

    A magma cleft room was what Laurence was confronted with when he arrived at the next testing stage. He and Yun had apparently made good time despite spending a large amount of it messing about and improving in his creative art. He had come a long way, but in his eyes he was still just beginning. To the young boy the limit of his path was endless. The only limit to his path to understanding the world seemed to be his imagination. Working through art and creating tools, he could understand reality more but in the process he would have to learn and experience like Luke had suggested.


    Although they arrived in good time, they were only given a day to rest and mull over the products of the trip so far. As soon as the next day rolled around both of them were ushered into a hall with over three thousand people in it. As Laurence scanned the room he was presented with a sight beyond his wildest dreams. At the front there were people of various ages and sizes, even some animals. Matter where you looked you could see unique people. Even now, though, the majority were still human. It seemed like humanity was the most suited to the various planes and realms that littered Babel.


    As Laurence stared at the wild and varied challengers in the room a dog-man walked out in front of the thrumming crowd of people. The crowd fell quiet when he showed himself, because through presence alone they could tell that all of the people in the room put together were weaker than him. He was taller than Tony, who resembled a terrier more than anything, and sported a much longer muzzle. His light brown fur set off his deep set eyes, eyes that seemed to exude the presence of a hunter. This man was not one that Laurence wanted to cross.


    ¡°My name is Declan Juda Lupe. I am the adjudicator of the fifth floor and will be monitoring all of you through this journey. In a moment I will split you into groups of five for the challenge you will be presented with. You will be pitted against another team in a game of attack-defense. One team must defend a point, object or person, while the other team must take, break or incapacitate the target. If one team ends up being incapacitated instead then the standing team is declared the victor. If you have a companion then you will be paired with them, but if you have more than four then your excess companions will be shuffled into teams together. Remember, as always, companions can pad on their own, but if the leader passes then all pass.¡±


    There was a murmur while Declan explained this round to the challengers. It was surprising to a lot of the contestants that there would be a test so similar to the second floor test, but the smarter people amongst the crowd either knew or quickly realised that the expanded group size, and the fact that they were not looking for a flag anymore, meant that the event could evolve in a variety of ways. Depending on whether the object had agency or not could completely change how parties would have to react.


    ¡°You can tell whether something is your target by the fact that there is this symbol upon their form.¡± He growled and then pointed to the odd flag behind him. Emblazoned on the flag was a very minimalist image of a dog¡¯s head. It was six lines, and at first glance looked like a mountain-range, but with Declan standing below the flag it was unmistakably a dog. ¡°They may wear it on their clothing or have it as a pattern on their cover. You will not be able to tell until you get into the challenge.


    ¡°You have absolute free reign to do what you want in the arena, the only real rule is that you can''t cover up the mark. It has to be clearly displayed.¡± With that he began walking off the stage towards the exit, turning round at the doorway to say ¡°Begin.¡±


    The moment he said the word Laurence felt a sense of displacement and then realised that he had been moved into a small room. There were four other people in the room, one was obviously Yun, but there was also a boy about the same age as Laurence, a tall woman, and what looked like a half human woman half bird hybrid. They were an eclectic group, but it surprised Laurence that there was someone else his age near climbing the tower.


    The tall woman walked over to Yun and began scratching him between his ears. ¡°You''re a beautiful specimen, aren''t you? I just want to take you home and use you as a rug.¡± She grinned at the idea before yelling in pain as Yun snaked down on her hand.


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    ¡°He can understand you, you know.¡± Said Laurence, as he walked up to his furry friend and put a hand on his shoulder. ¡°I don''t think we like you.¡± The way Laurence said it seemed to give the woman chills. It was delivered with so little emotion that she could not help but find it unsettling. She quickly retreated back cradling her punctured and bleeding hand.


    ¡°Calm down everyone. We have to work as a team if we want to pass this test, so how about we get to know each other instead of threatening to skin and wounding each other.¡± The bird-woman quickly spoke up, trying to stifle any more sparks that could ruin their chances. ¡°I''ll go first. I''m called Louisa, I have been climbing Babel for two years now. My combat capabilities are flight, reconnaissance and high speed assaults.¡±


    Laurence smiled at Louisa. He thought she was nice, so was happy that there was at least one nice person in the group they had formed.


    ¡°Sara Loaksang.¡± Said the tall woman. ¡°Bounty hunter and gladiator. I can track, fight and deal with children who bite off more than they can chew.¡± She said, shooting a look of pure venom at Laurence. He had no understanding of why she did this, it was senseless to him.


    The other child piped in, ¡°I would leave the boy alone. He''s obviously a golden child, otherwise he would not be here.¡±


    ¡°So what? What do you think I am? I can take on any child, no matter what colour they happen to be.¡± Sara frowned. She seemed missing something about the world.


    ¡°Oh, you''re from outside the tower aren''t you?¡± The boy replied dryly.


    ¡°So what if I am. Does that make me worse than you?¡± The woman seemed to take any form of reproach as an act of aggression, if not all out war. It was becoming infuriating.


    ¡°He''s just realised that you don''t have much local knowledge. That''s all.¡± Said Louise. She was quickly becoming the mediator between the two children and Sara. ¡°A golden child is a special existence, Sara. I expect that both these boys are from large clans. They are likely more talented than both of us, so have been thrown to the wolves to grow.¡± Louise paused, smoothing down the feathers on her arms. ¡°Sara, how long have you been climbing the tower?¡±


    ¡°Two years and six days. I was told that I can''t leave the tower until I get to the tenth floor once I pass the first test. I was hunting a bounty and followed them in here. They had already passed the test by the time I got into the tower, so I had to follow. Unfortunately I caught up with him and then found I could not get back.¡±


    ¡°That''s mighty unfortunate. But it took you two years and six days of hard work to get here right? So you have spent six hundred and six days travelling and battling to get here?¡±


    ¡°Yes. Why do you keep repeating the days like I''m an idiot?¡± Sara flared up again.


    ¡°Please, I just want to show you something."


    She pointed at the the other boy. He smiled and pulled his white leather jacket taught, removing any creases. Pushing back his blond fringe he said, ¡°My name is Quentin Absolution, I am a golden child of the Absolution clan who is gifted with the ?Book of Life?. I am a combat medic, and I can fight at super close range.¡± He puffed up his chest, proudly expressing how excellent he was. ¡°I am eight years old in ten days, and have been climbing since a month after my seventh birthday. I have currently been climbing Babel for two hundred and sixty days.¡±


    The two women showed shock on their faces. They were very fast at climbing the tower, in fact they were better than hundreds of other people who walked through the tower every day. This boy, however, was a true monster.


    ¡°You''re from the Absolution clan too? That''s awesome!¡± Said Laurence. He had a big grin on his face, as it was the first time he had met a member of his clan, outside if his father. ¡°My name is Laurence Absolution and this is Yun. I guess I''m a golden child too, but I make things. I can also fight with my hammer if we need.¡± He smiled again. It was hard to tell, but Sara send to shiver every time Laurence smiled. ¡°I''m still seven, but I''ve been climbing the tower for one hundred and fifty eight days.¡±

 Chapter 33: Hidden Immortals

    ¡°One hundred and fifty eight days?¡± Lousia stammered out. It was an unprecedented number that was four times quicker than her journey had taken. This child was without a doubt one of the elites of the Absolution clan.


    ¡°That¡¯s impossible!¡± Gasped Quentin. ¡°If you were a golden child of the Absolution clan then you would have to have taken ninety to get here. Shorter is possible, but longer is absolutely not.¡±


    ¡°Why not?¡± This confused Laurence, as he could only really go by what his father had told him. Quentin would know more about the inner workings of the clans simply by having a closer interaction with them from birth.


    ¡°Simple. The golden children are released on the first day of the month of Phenes, part of an agreement to push the children to compete better. You must have come in to Babel on the second of Turto for you to get here in that time.¡± Quentin frowned. ¡°Strictly speaking that means you are the year after me, but you had a massive head start on the other children of your year. I''m not sure if that will make things harder for you, or easier, but I''m glad you¡¯re on my team.¡±


    ¡°Well, my birthday is the first of Turto, so I guess you¡¯re right about that.¡± Laurence smiled again. The cheeky grin was becoming his defence mechanism for situations he had difficulty working out. ¡°I don¡¯t know why my father would not tell me to wait though. I''m sure he could have.¡±


    ¡°Who is your father?¡± Quentin asked. He assumed by knowing the name of Laurence¡¯s father he would be able to work out why the boy was released early. A normal golden child was privy to a lot of information that most of the other clansmen would not know. they would be the backbone of the clan when they grew up, so they were shown a lot to get them used to knowing secure information.


    ¡°My father is Angus Absolution, of Ribec Village.¡±


    The moment Quentin heard this name his hand dropped from his fringe and his face went white. ¡°Angus...¡± he stammered out. ¡°Angus... Bloody Gus...¡± His eyes were as wide as dish-plates in fear and reverence as he looked at the boy in front of him. ¡°You¡¯re the son of an Ascendant Immortal?¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Laurence, Sara and Louisa all yelled out. All the people in the room looked stunned at the young boy, as he looked at his canine friend with wide eyes.


    ¡°I assume that he never told you for some reason, but there is a story in our clan about him. He was our greatest healer, but when his brother died he became an angel of death, reaping the lives of many many people. The Clan ceased calling children Angus, or Gus, after the incident, just in case they inherit the ire of Bloody Gus. He terrifies most of the clan.¡±


    ¡°That doesn''t sound anything like my father though.¡± Said Laurence. He knew his father was skilled in battle, but the way he had been described made him sound like far more than the healer and guardian he always acted like. ¡°Either way, shouldn''t we get on to planning what we are going to do in the challenge?¡±


    ¡°For once I agree with you, kid.¡± Sara replied ¡°We need to know how to progress. If we attack, then it¡¯s pretty obvious that the bird scouts and we storm the weak point of wherever the enemy team is. Birdy, Louisa you said your name was?¡± Sara pulled out a pouch of something and began chewing a pinch of the contents. ¡°Louisa, can you sweep through the sky and look for an enemy blind-spot? If they have two blind-spots we should probably go through the second most obvious. That way we know we aren''t entering a trap by punching through what looks like the weakest spot.¡±


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    ¡°You sure know a lot about entering battle!¡± Said Laurence, his eyes alight with a fervour for knowing how Sara knew so much about battle. ¡°How did you learn so much?¡±


    ¡°As a bounty hunter I took part in a lot of raids on criminal encampments. I''ve picked up a few things about military tactics in my time.¡± She spat out the gunk she had been chewing into the corner of the room, before taking out out some more. Louisa winced when Sara spat. It seemed like she disliked spitting. ¡°What you have to remember in warfare is that plans go out the window once combat actually starts, and that there are only two three real states any group is at. That¡¯s if they are attacking or defending. You¡¯re either in a state of assault, feint or rest. No matter what you do you can¡¯t escape these three ideas, so in future you should plan with these three concepts in mind. The trick with any military engagement is guessing what your enemy is doing. Combat is like a massive game of rock, paper, scissors. If you have the right guess then you¡¯ll more likely benefit. It¡¯s not quite clear cut, but a good guess about your enemies plans will often save far more lives than a bad one. ¡°


    ¡°So warfare at it¡¯s core is simple, but its... Nuances come out in study?¡± Laurence beamed, he had learned a lot of new things in this simple conversation.


    ¡°You know a lot of big words for a kid.¡± Said Sara, spitting out the second load of gunk. Louisa winced again.


    ¡°Am I using that word right?¡± Said Laurence. ¡°I have heard people use it, but I¡¯m not sure if I was using it right.¡±


    ¡°you¡¯re using it right, Laurence.¡± Said Louisa. She began preening her feathers in thought. ¡°What if we are the defenders?¡±


    Quentin piped up. ¡°My suggestion is dependant on what our marked thing is. If it¡¯s a person then we could either hide them amongst us or set them somewhere the enemy could never expect. If it¡¯s an object, well while they said we couldn''t cover the mark, they never said we couldn''t cover the object. We just need to make sure it¡¯s hiding in plain sight with the mark on show.¡±


    They discussed the plans for fifteen more minutes, but in the end they could not come up with anything more substantial than what they had already thought of. they spent another ten preparing and ironing out their roles in the party. Laurence was their front line, with Sara and Louisa as scouting and ranged artillery. Finally Quentin was the support and healer. At the time no one had really paid any attention to Yun, they had just treated him as one entity with Laurence. They had no real idea of how strong any of the rest of the party really was, so the only thing they could do was test through combat.


    They strode out into the arena, as ready as a group of misfits who had never worked together could be. Sara spat out another chunk of the stuff she had been chewing, making Louisa shiver once more. Before them was a small building, made of obsidian and basalt. The black obsidian walls surrounding the area had a layer of lava behind it, giving the entire area a ruddy purple glow. There were several obsidian pillars between them and the building, littered about at varying heights as to pose as either cover for the attacking party or a bulwark for the defensive party. Depending on how active either team was, it could change the entire way the arena was fought in.


    Laurence summoned his hammer and took a few steps forward. ¡°looks like we are attacking then doesn''t it?¡± He smiled again, this time making all three of his companions shiver.

 Chapter 34: The Kimbramancer

    The fight was a lot closer than either side had expected. Laurence and Quentin meant that the other side had to be balanced with two saints, or equivalent. This test was one of tactical skill and forethought, with a little bit of luck thrown in for good measure.


    They began their trial by sending Louisa out on reconnaissance. It was interesting for Laurence to watch the woman climb up one of the larger obsidian plumes and just ride the pulses of heat that jettisoned out of the ground. As her massive wings unfurled she rocketed into the sky, showing out of sight. The small woman looked both stunning and elated as she flew, there was an expression on her face that seemed far more real than the pleasant, motherly smile that she wore when dealing with the rest of the group.


    After about five minutes Louisa flew back to the group, dive bombing then tapering off into a slow and graceful descent. ¡°We are looking to get an object. I''m about eighty five percent sure.¡± She smiled and bowed politely as her wings retreated back into her flesh, clasping her hands and swaying with her knees and hips alternately.


    ¡°Only eighty five percent?¡± Snapped Sara


    ¡°Yeah. While I have excellent dynamic vision, I couldn''t see all angles of the building. As long as they don''t have a secret room to put the person into, we should be facing five people.¡±


    ¡°What are the five targets?¡± The answer given seemed to be acceptable to the bounty hunter, so she moved on.


    ¡°One child, a girl, I assume she''s their golden child. Two humans, both male and subservient to the fourth person. One Azure clansman, she''s the one who controls the two men. Finally there''s a ?Kimbramancer? from Avalon.¡± At the mention of a person from Avalon, Quentin gasped. The great clans of the tower all knew of the Avalonians. It was hard not to know your natural enemy.


    Quentin explained to Sara and Laurence that the people of Avalon thought it sacrilegious to try and achieve perfection through the Books. They instead used a force called ?Gi? to survive and conquer. Gi seemed to be the antithesis of mana, because when the two came into contact they would quickly neutralise each other and turn to salt. For that reason, and several others, Kimbramancers were regarded as too alien. They were too different, and they hated the clans.


    ¡°You can always tell when someone is a Kimbramancer, because they have animal bones as piercings all over their bodies, and wear nothing but leather. It¡¯s something to do with the way they make tools in Avalon. It¡¯s all bone and leather.¡± Quentin finished, pulling on his fringe. ¡°If any of us come across the Kimbramancer, just use a projectile. They neutralise mana, so any enchanted stuff that any of us have will be pretty much useless.¡±


    ¡°So, what is the plan of attack?¡± Said Laurence. ¡°Shall I still punch in through the front and you guys go through the back?¡±


    ¡°When I was flying over, I didn¡¯t see anywhere that they particularly protected. So they might be hiding the object or person in plain sight, or in a secret room. Punching through the front will likely draw them to you, so you¡¯ll be in the most danger.¡± Louisa responded. She cared too much about people, which Laurence was having trouble working out if it was a weakness or a strength.


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    In the end they followed the plan they set up. Quentin and Sara crept round behind, and about five minutes later Laurence and Yun began moving towards the building. They moved quickly, but not quietly. Their job was amongst other things was to be a distraction. They began picking up speed and quickly reached the nearest pillar. Springing from pillar to pillar, the boy and his dog blasted towards the building at increasing speeds. As they landed in front of the house, Laurence realised his speed was too great and he tried to stop. His shoes began to smoke as the friction of the floor became too much for his clothes to bear. He lost his footing and crashed through the door, crushing one of the people in the enemy team. He rolled over and looked up at the room he had ended up in, before he could take a proper look around, Yun landed on top of him. He pushed his friend off him, and quickly rose to his feet, looking around he got a quick understanding of the area he was in. The two of them were in a large hall, filled with clutter and the writhing corpse of a human man. The room was far too empty for Laurence to feel comfortable. It was odd that they would not cover their easiest front to attack, he thought, but it quickly dawned on him that his team might have been second guessed. He flicked out his hammer and finished off the twitching corpse on the ground. It was a subtle difference, but the moment his hammer was formed Laurence¡¯s eyes dulled and his body relaxed.


    Quickly pulling out his red book, Laurence looked at the map on the first page. Excluding his own, and Yun¡¯s there were eight names. Each of the names had an italicised letter beside them, dictating allies and enemies and three names with ¡®E¡¯ beside them were bunched together. From what Laurence understood there was little chance that the Kimbramancer would want to stay for very long with the other members of their team, so Laurence assumed the one on their own, named ¡®Yveth Rudh¡¯ was the one that they would have most difficulty fighting.


    He looked at the map once more then said ¡°Yun, go help the rest of the team. If you finish things quickly then come back, but I will hold off the Kimbramancer off for you guys. If we can take out the team, then we don¡¯t have to think about anything other than finding the object.¡±


    Yun growled in assent and bounded towards the rest of the team. With that decided Laurence discarded thoughts about the rest of his team. He already knew they would win as they were attacking a bunched up group of fighters from all sides with greater numbers and equivalent skill. It was going to be an absolute victory.


    He took a few steps before putting his book away and called out. ¡°I know you can see me.¡± He said. Since he had entered the room he had felt eyes upon him, but the owner of those eyes had decided not to reveal themself as of yet. They had waited for him to open himself up to attack, but he had not. Perhaps him barrelling in had not been the best idea, but the speed he had been travelling had allowed him to enter the room at a speed beyond that of what a normal person would expect.


    A tall woman walked out of one of the two existing corridors. She was bone thin, to the point where the skin was stretched out like parchment across wooden spikes. She had two bone yellow piercings through each nostril situated like tusks, and bolts of bone through the skin going up her arms. The piercings seemed to stop at her leather tunic, which was skin tight over her upper body and loose past her boyish hips. The woman, Yveth, stuck out her snake-like tongue and licked her lips at the child before her, revealing one more piercing through the tip.


    She looked down at Laurence and pressed her hands together then raised them over her shaven head in some sort of bowing motion. Finally she opened her mouth. ¡°Child, I pray to the Lady that you are at peace with yourself.¡± Her nasal voice echoed through the room towards Laurence. ¡°For my clan has a blood feud with the practitioners of that thing you had in your hands.¡± She spat the last sentence out with a venom that was surprising to Laurence, then ran at the boy.

 Chapter 35: Gi

    Laurence raised his hammer, blade out in front. His father''s words once more echoed in his head ¡°Laurence, raise your blade. As long as you can keep the point of your weapon between you and your enemy they have to get through that before they get through you.¡± He kept his blade level and quickly thrust towards Yveth as she approached. She slipped to the side of Laurence¡¯s blade and dodged the hammerhead, reaching a meter away from the boy. It seemed like this was her range of combat so he quickly pulled himself back to a more comfortable distance.


    Yveth followed, sticking to Laurence like glue. Every step he took back she took one forward and struck towards him. He dodged and twisted but could not find a moment to break free from her assault and go on the offensive. He could feel each strike coming closer and closer to hitting him, but there was very little he could do to fend Yveth off. Each step back he tried to bring his hammer to defend by pumping mana through his muscles, however with every strike Yveth seemed to pull the mana out of Laurence¡¯s muscles and waste it. It was infuriating to him because no matter what he could do, the woman would graze her hands against his skin and sap his power. In desperation he ignited his inner flame and slammed his hammer into the ground, separating the two of them.


    With a moment to take a breath he pulled his hammer back and thrust forwards, flicking his hammer to the side he saw the woman push towards the head of the weapon. At the same time Laurence rotated his inner flame formation to restore his stamina and trueformed the air in front of Yveth¡¯s mouth into stone. She blocked the hammer and breathed out, or at least tried to, but the hammer was not an enchanted weapon like she expected and did not turn to dust on contact instead her hand was crushed abs one of the bone piercings in her arm shattered. The stone around her mouth however did turn into salt. Before she realised it she had breathed in a large chunk of rock salt and sputtered to get the material out of her mouth. Her brow furrowed in rage at the fact that a child was surviving for far longer than he should be, but anger cleared her mind and focused her spirit.


    Yveth took ten steps back and breathed in deeply. Laurence could tell that she had something planned, but real combat experience was something the boy sorely lacked. The only people he had ever fought who were as strong or stronger than him were his father, the Orik and now Yveth. It was truly bothersome for him, but he knew that he was growing because of it so he welcomed the challenge.


    Watching the woman dive back into the fray they clashed once more. Laurence quickly realised that when his skin was touched by the Kimbramancer his mana was drained and turned into salt, but when his weapon made of his soul and mana collided with the woman she became injured. He could not understand why, but his hammer seemed to be immune to the Gi that Yveth used.


    Tossing the thought aside, Laurence began to probe his enemy''s defences. With each step forward Yveth took, he would either thrust towards her throat then swing down towards her abdomen and attack there instead, or stab at her heart and flick upwards. No matter what he did, the best result Laurence got was a seared leather top when Yveth predicted the third attack wrong and corrected it a beat too slow. The battle was slowing, but Yveth still had complete control of things. No matter what Laurence tried he could not stop her advance, and if he ever replaced the air in her mouth, she would just break from combat and regulate her breathing. It was becoming more and more clear that Laurence was sorely outmatched in this fight. He knew, but he realised that until his allies came back from their engagement he was pinned down in a fight he was destined to lose.


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    After five rounds of fighting Laurence managed to get a second hit against Yveth, causing her frown to deepen. She should have won against the boy by now, but he was holding out simply through the fact that his skills were awkward to fight against and she could not deal with the weapon in his hands. Yveth was used to making every weapon that had even the slightest amount of mana turn to salt with simply a touch.


    In frustration Yveth took a step back and spat out the word ¡°Gidan¡±. The skin on her fingers receded even further, to the point where the bone was effectively protruding from within her flesh. Her bones began to shift shape, becoming denser and sharper with each passing moment. Finally the sides of her hands thinned down to sharp edges, tapering off into points at the tip of her fingers. What used to be fully functioning hands were now sharp blades on the ends of disturbingly long arms. Yveth raised one hand and licked the edge, allowing the blood that spilled to drip down her arms and spill on the floor. She closed her eyes in reverie at the sensation, but through all this Laurence simply looked on. Even now, with her face flushed and eyes closed he could not see a clear way to attack without getting hit back.


    Yveth dove back into the fray with renewed vigour. Each swing of her hand would dig into Laurence¡¯s flesh, ripping off small chunks and layers. Within seconds the boy had his arms dyed red. Even his jacket had tears and holes peppering it. Yet through all this, Yveth could not quite end the combat. Laurence was slowing down, but he was not letting Yveth land a killing blow. Instead he was dying by inches, being exposed to death by a thousand cuts.


    Once again Laurence was driven back by the woman. The whole fight had been going for less than five minutes but they had traversed up and down the room over twenty times, with each pass tearing up the room more and more. As the seconds ticked by Yveth¡¯s frown deepened, her forehead was beginning to resemble a pit of spikes because the boy¡¯s endurance was so great. His mana reservoir seemed to be endless but she knew full well that that could not be the case. He would run out eventually, and the moment he did she would seal the deal.


    Taking a swipe at Laurence¡¯s head, Yveth did not expect it to connect but the wind pressure pushed Laurence back, forcing him to stumble over the debris on the floor. As he fell backwards something dawned on him. He quickly slammed his hammer down on the ground once more, peppering the Kimbramancer with stones. She pulled back for a second, but that was all Laurence needed to finalise his plan. Perhaps he could change the terrain of the arena to his advantage, either by forcing Yveth to nullify what looked like stable ground, or just by shifting the floor nearby. Laurence rolled back and flipped onto his feet , shunting some of the ground near Yveth to the side while covering the rest around her in basic runes and glyphs. No matter where she stepped there would be a pitfall.


    Yveth smiled. In her mind it was time to go for the kill. Over the last minute, Laurence had been feeling the stress of combat more and more. His mana reservoir was finally beginning to empty itself to the dregs, but still he held on. His perseverance would make his Gi so much more powerful when she consumed it. Laurence readied himself to see if the trap would work, but it failed. It seemed that for her to collapse these spells she needed to go through either a thin layer of clothing or be touching the spell bare skinned. Her feet were protected by thick leather boots, so Laurence quickly realised that this image of death incarnate was coming in for the final blow. His last ditch attempt to sway the fight in his favour had not worked and now he was going to pay the price.

 Chapter 36: The White Haired Child

    The strike that would have taken Laurence¡¯s head swung towards him but never arrived. Moments before it would have landed, Yveth was knocked aside by a human cannonball. The speed of the human moving was slightly beyond what either of them could see, so Yvethe had no chance to respond before being flung aside like a ragdoll. She crashed into a wall as the human landed on their feet and stood up.


    In front of them was a young boy, about the same age as Laurence with white fur clothes covering his body. The fur clothing was of the same cut as Laurence¡¯s handmade clothes, but with thick fur mittens instead of sleeves that ended at the elbow. In his hand was a short spear that looked more like a needle than anything else. It exuded a similar sensation to Laurence¡¯s hammer, but rather than the strength that was inherent in Laurence¡¯s spirit, this boy¡¯s spear expressed a radiance of finesse. The young boy¡¯s grey-white hair flickered in the rubble and wind generated by his entry. He looked like a wildling, with bright yellow eyes, standing in the fine mist of dust.


    Yveth stood up, pressing off the wall she had slammed into to propel her back into a standing stance. Her form was no less oppressive than it had been before, but facing two boys of equivalent power seemed to neuter her capabilities considerably. She frowned at the odds before finally sprinting towards the unguarded exit of the building. The boy in white dove towards her at breakneck speed, but just as he reached Yveth she swung her hands back towards his unprotected neck. Unable to halt his momentum he ran straight into the wall, cracking it and shattering half of it.


    Yveth stepped over the boy and sprinted from the building and off into the distance. She had decided that fighting Laurence and the boy in white was more effort than it was worth, so left them to their own devices. Laurence walked over to the boy and grabbed him by the hand, pulling him out of the wall he was partially trapped under.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± He said, looking at the boy who saved his life.


    ¡°Brother, don¡¯t you recognise me?¡± The white haired boy looked slightly hurt at this.


    ¡°Yun?¡± Said Laurence. ¡°Yun, is it really you?¡±


    ¡°Yes.¡± Replied Yun simply. He brushed himself off and began to walk back to the main room. ¡°We should help the others find the target.¡±


    As they walked to the back of the building Yun began to shift and blend his current form and the form of the wolf he was before. Soon he had melded the two forms before shifting finally into his canine form. The path before them slowly became littered with less and less debris through their journey, finally clearing away at the large room in front of them.


    The room was cluttered, full of objects that displayed various sigils and patterns on them. The rest of Laurence¡¯s team stood around the room, rummaging through the objects surrounding them. Laurence could see that they were quickly becoming more and more angry at the area surrounding them. Sara smashed the pots in front of her in a fit of rage, then began looking at a box full of jewelry.


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    ¡°This pattern could be on anything¡± Said Louisa, sighing as she put back a small bowl full of multicoloured stones. She turned around and saw Laurence with torn clothes and bloodied flesh. She gasped, ¡°Laurence, are you alright?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m fine.¡± He responded. ¡°I encountered the Kimbramancer, and it did not go as well I thought it would.¡± He did not sigh, or complain about his loss, he just told them that he was more confident than he had reason to be. ¡°If Yun had not shown up when he did, I would have not been able to hold out for much longer. What happened here?¡±


    ¡°We won.¡± Said Quentin glibly. ¡°It started off tough because we were evenly matched with the enemy party, but when Yun showed up we quickly overcame them. Aliss, the other golden child, managed to hold us off as they escaped, but that¡¯s because she sealed the exit behind them. Briar clansmen are very gifted at rearranging terrain quickly, so they pulled back the moment they realised they were losing.¡± He threw some clothing on the ground as he talked, flicking through a variety of styles but only taking a moment to look for the Lupe clan insignia.


    ¡°Since then we¡¯ve just been ransacking this room for the object that we need to find, but we¡¯ve not found anything.¡± Said Sara.


    Hearing Quentin¡¯s and Sara¡¯s words, Laurence began to relax. He smiled and rubbed his hands together, immediately delving into the mass of objects in front of him. Every so often he would throw one or two of the objects in his bag, but for the most part he just discarded things that he found.


    They spent twenty minutes before Sara, Quentin and Louise sat down in the middle of the room, surrounded by clutter and feeling no closer to actually passing the challenge than they had when Laurence arrived. Laurence still looked but even he was beginning to think the searching was unlikely to bear fruit. He cleared away the big pile in front of him when he heard a bark from Yun.


    ¡°Brother!¡± Sent Yun. ¡°Brother, I found something!¡± Yun stood in front of a small alcove that had been hidden behind a settee. Inside there were three objects. A statuette, a painting and box. Each one was a lot less intricate than any of the objects in the main room, but clearly had the logo of the Lupe clan emblazoned on them. When Laurence saw this, he grabbed all three and yelled over to his allies. Before he could say anything coherent, however, there was a bright flash of light and everything disappeared.

 Chapter 37: Separation

    The group appeared in another room carved from lava. It was sparse, but there was a table and some chairs set up in the middle. The group sat down and Quentin began tending to Laurence¡¯s wounds. He wiped up the blood and injected mana into Laurence¡¯s skin, allowing the wounds on his body to quickly knit back together. Laurence felt some minor discomfort as his wounds were sealed back together, but it was nothing he could not deal with and was comparatively pleasant to the sensation of the injuries themselves. His only real complaint to Quentin was that everywhere healing was uncomfortably itchy.


    They sat in the middle of the room looking at the art objects in the middle of the room. Nothing there was particularly special, and yet each piece had an aura about it, a personality that seemed to stem from the emblem of the Lupe clan on the artefacts. Because of this they interested Laurence. He had not thought about them before, but could see how the symbols that a clan rallies behind could become a sigil for creation in its own right. It was the intent behind the glyph that gave it the power, so the more intention that could be held in a glyph from any and all sources gave it more power. It made the boy wonder what else could be considered a glyph and whether he could manufacture a glyph that could contain the same sense of prestige, the same radiance as the Lupe clan glyph.


    As Laurence sat working out how to create a glyph with the prestige and inherent power of a clan emblem the adjudicator of the floor, Declan, walked into the room and sat down in front of the group. He pulled his jacket up to flare the collar, some would have said it looked more imposing that way. Looking at the group in front of him, the dog-man stretched out and picked up the three objects. Putting the statuette down, he smiled and said, ¡°You¡¯re the tenth group to finish this test. Well done.¡± His voice still contained the arrogance that it had when he was explaining the way the test floor worked, but it was a quieter arrogance. It was the kind that commanded the room without effort rather than the kind that someone had to work for. It was like he had been bred to lead. ¡°Now, before I send you to on to the fifth floor I would like to ask you all, did any of you end up in the plains of fire on the previous floor? If so, could you tell me whether you discovered anything other than just a plain of fire?¡±


    ¡°I did¡± Said Laurence. ¡°I was in the plain, and I discovered a mountain. Inside the mountain was a man. A man called Luke.¡± The moment Laurence mentioned the man, Luke, a flash of recognition passed across Declan¡¯s face. It was nearly imperceptible, and left as quickly as it came but it was there.


    ¡°Would you pass me your pointer stone, child?¡± Said Declan, reaching out towards Laurence. There was a light in his eyes that betrayed his cool exterior, a fervent vigour that expressed his excitement and apprehension. He took the small black stone and placed it next to a black ring he had on his finger. A string of fluorescent symbols sprang from Laurence¡¯s stone and injected themself into the ring. Soon the symbols began moving back from the ring into Laurence¡¯s stone.


    ¡°As you should remember, on the second floor testing area your pointer stone would have been augmented for the first time to give you an instant mana restoration skill.¡± Declan continued, handing back the stone to Laurence once he had done. ¡°On the third floor test room your stone would have been changed to include a communication hub, a text based one. Last floor your stone would have been restructured to include a person sensor, one that shows the location of any living persons in an area around you.¡± Declan paused, taking in the pointer stones from the rest of the group. A beam arced out of his ring and split into four more, landing on the stones of the others. ¡°This floor gifts you with a barrier. It will stand up to any single strike, but will shatter after that. It takes one full day to recharge but after that will be good to go again.¡±


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    ¡°An incredible lifeline.¡± Said Sara, quickly taking up her stone. She grabbed her chewing pouch and stuck the stone inside it. ¡°Do we get anything else? I have already found the medicine pack rather useful. Some of the herbs are excellent battle stimulants.¡±


    ¡°So that¡¯s what you''ve been chewing!¡± Said Quentin. He had a great respect for medicinal herbs, being from the clan of the Book of Life, so to hear that someone was chewing the herbs that they had been given on the fourth testing room angered him considerably. ¡°You¡¯re wasting the herbs!¡± He gasped. ¡°If you are just going to chew them, then give them to me. I¡¯ll make sure someone actually gets some use out of it.¡±


    ¡°Hell no kid, If you want me to give you the herbs then I need something back from them. Teach me how to do that healing thing you do and I¡¯ll give you them.¡± Sara waved the bag at Quentin, almost taunting him with it.


    ¡°I don¡¯t have a problem with showing you the path of Life, though I would have thought you were more suited to the path of Destruction. You are a mercenary.¡± He began playing with his fringe again. ¡°It¡¯ll take a long time too. You¡¯d have to come with me for a few years, and I¡¯ll be travelling mighty quickly. I have to to keep up with people like him.¡± He pointed at Laurence.


    ¡°So does that mean you two will be travelling with each other from now on?¡± Said Louisa.


    ¡°I guess so.¡± Said Sara. ¡°I got nothing better to do, my bounty is impossible for me to collect on and the kid can teach me how to get stronger. You two?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m going to keep climbing the tower. I want to see what is on the next floor, and Yun is going to come with me.¡± Said Laurence. He had no trouble deciding what he wanted to do, because his wanderlust was the driving force behind everything in the boy¡¯s life.


    ¡°Would I be able to come with you Laurence? It may not mean much to you but I would love to be able to spend some time with an iconic creature like your wolf. A white tiger-wolf is the totem of the Lupe clan, and while my clan¡¯s totem is the vermilion phoenix it would still be a magical experience for me.¡± Said Louisa. Her eyes shone with a light that Laurence understood well. She wanted to know better what living with Yun was like.


    ¡°I don¡¯t see why not.¡± Said Laurence. ¡°I probably won¡¯t be trying as hard as Quentin to climb the tower, but I will be quick. You will have to keep up.¡± He laughed.


    Declan stood up and handed the group a small bag. ¡°In this bag there is 20 copper shards. and a small poison kit. You can apply them to your weapons to act as a numbing agent or mix something more lethal. The antidotes are also in there in case you poison yourself. If that will be all, I must ask you to leave. I have other groups to see.¡± He ushered them towards the door and pushed them out quickly. ¡°Good luck upon your journey, challengers, I wish you a safe trip.¡±

 Chapter 38: The Citadel

    The air was frigid. Nighttime always was on the fifth floor. During the day it was comfortable to the point of being warm, but right now Peter could barely feel his fingers for lack of warmth. He looked at the two skulls that floated behind him then sent one down to the estate below. It was a rocky fort, surrounded by sheets of cloud cover. They were too high up to see any details in the citadel, but there were lights in the windows. Each one was flickering like a star in the sky against their hard, grey stone backdrop. Peter thought it was pretty, but knew a few lights would be going out tonight.


    He had followed the scent to this town, like always it was just ahead of him. Just out of reach. Beyond the next hill and past the next floor lay his target. It was infuriating sometimes, but then Peter would remind himself that the prize was so sweet. Injecting mana into a skull, Peter sent the older, more decrepit of the skulls down to fly around the area. He needed to find his third skull before he was ready to find his target, it was the only thing that stopped his skeletal array from being complete. One more skull, one more life, one more aspect to fill in the gaps.


    The skull came back five minutes later. The moment it returned it began projecting a map on the floor showing the entire area of the citadel. The main building had one entry-way and one staff exit, a simple bottleneck that Peter could stopper. The defenses itself would in no way defend from a child. The walls were built to deal with giant flesh eating birds, not children. The architect had added several sets of equidistant spikes into the walls and buttresses to defend against the multitudinous monstrosities that populated the floor. The fort was one built as if on a wilderness frontier rather than on a country border and the defenses were telling.


    Peter split his mouth into a greasy grin at the thought of his gains tonight. Perhaps he would find a subject who could be his third piece, or perhaps he would find a clue to his target. He had no idea, or way of knowing. He scampered down the side of the hill, making sure if his every step before taking it. If not for Chester then his journey down the hill would have been much more precarious. The skull projected what was below and around Peter as a three dimensional image beside him, allowing him to quickly move without encountering any trouble.


    Once he reached the bottom of the cliff he began moving quietly towards the side wall. While dealing with the fort would be no problem, Peter still needed to make sure there were no escapees. He ran through the low clouds, using the older skull, Chester, to navigate for him and made good time. For his plan to work he needed everyone in the citadel to be in as close proximity to each other as possible. Casing the building had taken days, to make sure that everything was planned down to the last moment, but because of that Peter was on a tight schedule.


    Getting to the wall, he began clambering up the spiked ladder he had been gifted with. Each step made him more and more sure of the success of the plan. It would not be too long before he had finished preparing everything, but now he had to put things in motion. He swung over the top, sliding between the spiked ramparts and onto the inside of the citadel. Taking a quick look around there were no guards nearby, but near one of the guard towers that were situated on the corners of the building stood a couple of men, guardsmen looking out for any giant beasts.


    Peter stole up to one of the guardsmen and in his most innocent voice he said ¡°Sirs, can you help me with something?¡±


    They turned and looked at the young boy standing beneath them. Peter looked up at the two men, trying to give them his most innocent smile. ¡°Kid, you¡¯re not from round here. How did you get here?¡± Said one man. He was a blond, with a strong chin. A good potential base, but his strength was less than Peter would have liked. The other man was stronger, but Peter found the shape of his skull repulsive, so he could only relegate them to one thing, reinforcing his mana reservoir.


    ¡°Sirs, I really need you to give me your souls!¡± He said, chipper and happy about the whole situation. A shadow seemed to rise around the boy as he took in a deep breath. It flickered and danced as the two grown men began to falter at the sensation of their very essence torn from their body. The blond man tried to scream, but no sound would come out. He tried to move away but he was stuck still. The only thing he could feel was an encroaching cold and a sense of tearing. Before his body collapsed on the floor, empty of any living essence all he could think was how happy the young boy looked while they died.


    Both men died as silently as two collapsing bodies could be, serving only to fuel Peter¡¯s increasingly deep mana reservoir and empty stomach. Pushing the two empty husks over the side of the wall, he began to run towards the next guard tower. Reaching the next pair of guards he began yelling to them. He artfully forced tears to streak down his face as he shouted out, ¡°Sirs, sirs! something has happened to the other guardsmen!¡± He slowed down, panting heavily, fear flashing across his face. ¡°I was just asking them something when a huge lizard climbed up the walls and snatched them.¡± At the sound of Peter¡¯s story the two guardsmen began moving towards the other men, but soon they were corpses pitched over the wall as well.


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    Peter continued round the wall until there were no guards left defending the building. He had finished his starter, so it was time to move on to the full meal. Moving towards the servants entrance of the fort he quietly closed the door, momentarily swearing about the fact that he could have just blocked the door with the bodyweight of the corpses. Instead he made an incision on his wrist and drew a stylised eye in his blood on the body of the door. It was a mark that had been used by the Mephisto family for generations that he had come to rely on in the recent past.


    With the back door sealed Peter moved around to the front entrance of the stone building. He raised his hood, trying to look as imposing as possible in his black cloak and robes. The two skulls perched on Peter¡¯s shoulders like little angels of death, ready to pounce if something went wrong, but the boy thought it unlikely that anything would. There would be no escaping now.


    He kicked open the massive door that led into the main hall of the fort, shocking the crowd assembled at the table that was just being cleared for the next part of their meal. They saw a small figure coming out of the billowing smog that was everywhere at this time of night. Like a grim reaper he stood at their doorway, face obscured, with those skulls floating behind him. What Peter saw was a lot simpler. He saw dinner.


    He licked his lips and rubbed his clammy hands together. This would be his largest haul yet, but with every soul he absorbed his ?Stolen Life Formation? would improve his mana quicker than anything else he could do. Barely holding back his glee Peter said, ¡°Good evening ladies and gentlemen! I¡¯m glad you seem to be enjoying your meal, because it is going to be your last.¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Said the large man at the head of the table. He was a big man, with a nice skull shape. He fit with the other two skulls Peter had picked up in his journey so far, so much so that Peter was having trouble resisting just completing the array then and there. The man put down his knife and skewer, then stood up. The only sound that could be heard as he stood was the scrape of his chair against the stone floor, even the dogs around the table were silent. A shadow swept down the hall as the leader of this group of people reached his peak height. He was a very tall man. ¡°What did you say, stranger?¡± He boomed.


    Peter walked into the room proper, slamming the door behind him. He jumped onto the table and began moving down its center. Kicking away any plates of food that got in his way, the only sounds were the clangs of the metal plates hitting the floor and the slap of the meat strewn across the ground. Finally after what felt like an eternity, Peter opened his mouth once more. ¡°Was I not clear? I meant you are going to die now. I hope you enjoyed your last few moments alive.¡±


    With that the boy drew another massive breath, and the people around him began dying. Within moments heads began smashing against the floor or tables near them, and through all this the large man could do nothing but watch. He screamed at the sight of his family and friends being culled like farm animals, but there was nothing he could do, he was too late. Peter licked his lips once more, looking at the tall man before diving straight towards him.


    He slammed into the man, at the abdomen and throat like he had practiced so many times before, tearing out his mana reservoir and his head off. It was a sharp motion, seemingly impossible for a child, but Peter had done it.


    After the short display of death all that was left was a young boy, standing in the middle of a room full of corpses, covered in gobbets of muscle and fat, while holding a severed head with a full spine trailing below it. It was nearly time to finish the array. Before he could do that, however, he quickly walked through the building, making sure to collect the souls of anyone he had not managed to get in his first breath. Finally he saw a young girl, a maid of some sort, near the exit that he had sealed with the family mark. She was sat on the floor, her body shaking with fear and smelling of urine. Peter mused that her mind had been broken by the fear effects of the family mark.


    ¡°Thanks for the meal.¡± He said to no one in particular, before taking a deep breath.

 Chapter 39: Smoke And Ash

    Cleo walked amongst the decay of the small town. It was not the first time that she and Winoa had come across such a desolate ruin of a town. No matter where either girl turned they would find mummified corpses in various states of desiccation. It was disgusting, but their path to the next gateway cut through this town directly.


    When the two girls had come across a place like this, they could not hold back emptying their stomachs. It was like the whole town had just decided to die, a lot of the people not even bothering to finish eating their food or even finish go to the toilet. Walking through the decay became physically difficult after a while, so before the girls continued Cleo set the whole area ablaze. It was painful, but they could not bear to see the town like that. Better it burned than those terrifying corpses be left in the open for someone else to find.


    They holed up in an empty farmhouse to pass the night, but neither girl was in any real state to sleep. Every town or fortress they came across that ended up like this shook them more and more. The first Cleo had come across it there were fifteen or twenty people, but every time after that the body count was higher. The corpses were always the same, sometimes found in strange places but never holding any fluid and always with the same terrified expression plastered on their face. It was a sort of rictus grin combined with a yell of terror. They had the kind of face you can only fail to get out of your head for days after you had seen it.


    In the end, both girls had hardened to the macabre sights. It was that or break and stop climbing, which was an impossibility for either of them. They kept climbing but refused to lose their humanity in the process, so at every encounter with the poor souls who had been set upon by some sort of natural disaster they would light a fire. Cleansing the place through cremation was the only thing that could stop the faces invading their dreams, but for Cleo at least it could only help so much. She would still cry herself to sleep in fear.


    In the morning the two girls sat and Cleo prepared a breakfast of trail rations, thinking over their journey so far. They did not have much, but they had enough to feed for a few more days, so when Cleo saw Winoa pull out a stasis box full of food from her bag she could not help but gasp.


    ¡°Where''d you get that?¡± She said, gaping at the amount of food inside. The box was full of all sorts of meats, several bags of grain, seeds and rice, even some fruit and vegetables. The fact that it held anything that was not rotten was incredible, as everything else they had found was either infested with bugs or too rotten to eat. What was even more amazing was a ten centimetre box held so much food. The more food that came out of the crate, the wider Cleo¡¯s eyes became. The box was like a clown car, with more and more food coming out, until finally in front of the two girls was a pile of food that was twice the size of both girls.


    Both girls stared with wide eyes at the pile, then back at the box. A stasis box was already a great treasure, but the fact that it seemed to be far bigger on the inside than the outside made it even more valuable. To find it in a small town on the fourth floor was more odd than anything else. The collapse of the Hephaistia clan had irreparably changed the face of trade within Babel. Artifacts became rarer, permanent tools became harder to find in markets and eventually anything that had a finite amount of uses was used up. Trade of rare perishables became increasingly lucrative but more and more difficult to attain in any sellable sense.


    Neither Cleo nor Winoa knew much about economics, but both knew that before they had been born food had been a lot more plentiful, as well as a lot more varied. Most clans grew their own food, but it was in no way as varied as the girls had been told about before the collapse of that pivotal clan. The fact that a clan could be wiped out, especially one as wide reaching as the Hephaistia had affected the tower in ways that people were still only just finding out.


    ¡°I got the box while you were setting the town alight.¡± Said Winoa. ¡°I found it in the big building in the center of the town, it had the strongest aura of mana in the area.¡± It was like the maker of the box pumped as much mana into the box as they could, just to make sure it would last for longer than the two weeks that normal stasis boxes did when active. Yet this excess of mana, which should not have been there in the first place, was what directed Winoa to it before it had been eaten up in the fire. Winoa could be nothing but grateful for the man who had made the box, it would feed the both of them for perhaps the rest of their journey if they rationed it right.


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    ¡°I couldn¡¯t help it...¡± Cleo shivered. ¡°The flames are the only way I can get the faces of those people outside of my head.¡± Her hands rubbed together and ignite as she sat nervously. She sniffed, trying to hold back her tears. ¡°The flames were the only way to cleanse them.¡± Her shoulders shook as she began to cry freely. Seeing her friend so distraught, Winoa panicked and awkwardly tried to hug the small girl. Cleo flinched but found that the comfort of another person sharing her pain eased it somewhat, at least enough to regain control over her emotions and stop sobbing.


    ¡°Are you alright?¡± Said Winoa, brushing her long, brown hair out of Cleo¡¯s face.


    ¡°Fine, now that your hair is out of my face.¡± She laughed awkwardly, sniffing once again she rubbed her damp face with the hem of her smock. Abandoning their thoughts of the dead bodies the girls wolfed down the food in front of them and stored the massive pile of excess back in the box for a later date. They were just finishing clearing up their camping gear when the girls heard a knock at the door to the barn they were staying in.


    ¡°Hello? Is there anyone in there?¡± The voice was of a man, beyond that the girls could not tell. ¡°Hello? Any survivors there?¡±


    ¡°We¡¯re coming out.¡± Said Winoa. Her time climbing the tower had made her nothing if not cautious. Both girls had found that the best way to deal with situations that could be tenuous was to make everything clear from the forefront. ¡°We don¡¯t mean you any harm.¡±


    The man laughed as the girls walk out. He was a friendly looking man, though with a scarred face, and missing both an eye and a hand made him look slightly odd. His soft brown hair and skin made him look like a man in his early thirties, but his stature and the scarring on his face made him look a lot older than that.


    ¡°The name¡¯s Zoo. I¡¯m a salesman of goods and wares between the towns... Or at least I was until this epidemic of corpses and burning towns.¡± He paused, looking at Cleo and Winoa. ¡°You girls wouldn¡¯t know much about that, would you?¡± Once he saw the two people in the barn were young girls he moved back to the nearby cart and sorted through the bags there.


    ¡°No sir, we¡¯re just a pair of children climbing Babel.¡± Said Winoa, flashing an innocent smile that could melt a heart of iron. ¡°Could we ask if you could take us to the nearest city to the...¡± She pulled out her pointer stone, then put it away again quickly. ¡°We need to go to the northernmost point. Could we catch a ride to the most northernmost town or port in this island?¡±


    ¡°Alright. The northernmost town on this island is called Slipstream, after the trade route that passes through to the four great islands of the floating precipices. I can take you as far as that, but once we get past there I will have to leave you on your own.¡±


    ¡°Thank you sir!¡± Both girls said, hopping onto the back of the cart. Winoa pulled out a small bag of salted animal jerky, sharing them with Cleo. They shared a small smile, the first real one they had had in days. It had been a long time coming, but both girls hoped that the next few days would be easier at least.

 Chapter 40: Slipstream

    The hustle and bustle of Slipstream was overwhelming to Laurence and Yun. Neither of them had ever been in a city before, so the sights, sounds and smells were like being dumped into an unfamiliar jungle. Slipstream was not a large city, but it was a sizeable port. There were hundreds of people passing through the port every day, going too and fro within the world contained on the fifth floor. Each floor had its gimmick, or unique characteristic that made it distinct and the fifth floor¡¯s oddity was that each landmass was placed upon a precipitous spire of stone and metal. The spires all stood upon an arid and desolate land, so hot and dry that no living thing could possibly stand to live there. Instead life had migrated to these great spires


    The spires were a much more liveable space, with clean, clear air, water and even copious amounts of plant life. It was a lush, verdant paradise in comparison to the land below. Different societies had developed at the peak of each pillar, separate for generations before finally being connected together in a massive network of airship routes. These societies revolved around the trade routes that passed their various speciality goods around to the different continents, and so most ports quickly built up into cities.


    Every five or six faces that the group walked past was an entirely different species of person. All of them were bipedal, but some had wings, like Louisa, some had fur like Declan, some even had scales. It was something that Laurence could not help but point out.


    ¡°They are the general populace that the four great animal clans were born of.¡± Replied Louisa. ¡°I''m part of the Vermilion clan, one that reveres the vermilion firebird. We call it the phoenix, and it¡¯s our most prized ally. It¡¯s why we, I mean the Vermilion clan, were allowed to reside in the breeding grounds of the phoenix.¡± Louisa shone with pride at the concept of living in the breeding grounds of one of the four great beasts. ¡°We call them godbeasts; the vermilion bird, white tiger-wolf, azure dragon and black turtle.¡± She ushered the two boys into a nearby inn and asked for a room. The innkeeper quickly handed them a key when she passed him five copper shards. Finally Louisa ushered the boys into their room before talking to them again.


    ¡°I didn¡¯t want to say Yun, you¡¯re one of those godbeasts, which is why I am so confused as why you were found on the first floor. You should have been brought up in the grounds of the Lupe clan, but for some reason you were born outside. It¡¯s like the tiger-wolves don¡¯t trust the Lupe any more.¡±


    Laurence sat on one of the beds in the pokey little room they had been given. He sat, mulling over what Louisa had told him before realising that what she said was lacking something. ¡°Why are these creatures called godbeasts? What makes Yun so different from other wolves?¡± Laurence admired his brother, but he could not see what made him so different that his entire species was worshipped by a race of humanoid canines. From what Laurence had seen when growing up in a church, it took a lot of power to make someone a subject of worship. Sometimes it took very little to generate a sense of worship, but to hold it took great forethought, ability and action.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple really.¡± Louisa replied, preening the feathers on her arms as they conversed. ¡°Godbeasts of all kinds have something that the four beast clans sorely wish to attain. They call it ?The Shift?, but we refer to it as ?Physical Ascension?. Like the paths to ascension that you golden children walk on, this skill can lead you to immortality. However, it is so much more difficult than the books. You have no path to follow, you must simply learn to control all your skin, muscles and bones, then your veins and mana paths. With those skills you can emulate anyone, you can become anyone.¡±


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    ¡°But why do you need to worship the godbeasts? Surely this is something that your clan would have spent generations trying to create, to copy in such a way that it stops being a copy.¡± Laurence was confused. Surely they should realise that this was not the best way to go about the study of the skill. He remembered when his father had received a message about an event in the tower that had gifted the village with a large amount of foods that people had never seen before. No one asked where the food came from, because it was from the almighty tower. Yet Laurence wanted to know. He had wanted to know more than the parables that he was told that did not quite match up to what he saw. He had wanted to know the other side of that magnificent black stele that he had seen every day, to see the top of the tower and survey the lands that spanned universes below him. It was his greatest driving force, his only driving force. He could not understand how it could not be for anyone else, and how they could go about learning by waving a veil of worship and ineffability over the truth. He could not understand how someone could willingly blind themself.


    ¡°Because they teach us. It took generations of mutual acceptance, but the four beast clans took on a patron animal closest to their form and began to be taught. There is a mutual bond between the clan and the godbeast has aided us both for millennia, but now Yun here was born outside of that realm.¡± Louisa sighed. ¡°Something is very, very wrong with the Lupe clan if the godbeasts no longer want to be around them, if they would go out of their way to breed outside of the homeland to avoid their young being caught up in Lupe machinations.¡±


    ¡°You can read that just out of the fact I was born outside?¡± Said Yun. ¡°I can hardly believe that you can pull that much out of the fact that my earliest memories are all of the primordial first floor. It¡¯s a bit of a stretch.¡± Yun was developing far quicker than Laurence. It was as if he was experiencing seven seconds for every second that Laurence did. The speed at which he learned and reacted was as fast as his experience.


    ¡°It¡¯s because of those facts that I can only assume something like a sense of distrust has bloomed. The godbeasts would only leave us if something threatened their lives or the chance of their line failing. The tiger-wolves have, without a doubt, left the realm of the Lupe. As for the exact reason I cannot even fathom to guess.¡± She stopped preening and settled down into her bed. She was more woman than bird, avian in some respects but humanoid in most, however her bedding routine was very much a reflect of the bird in her. ¡°Now we need to get some rest. We will have a long day ahead of us tomorrow, especially if we are to find a ship to charter to the north of the floor. We¡¯ll be cutting out of the slipstream if we want to make the next testing area in any good time, and that can be dangerous.. Or at least unpredictable.¡±


    The three companions all finished getting ready for bed and settled down to a rest filled night, one of the few truly restful nights that Laurence had actually experienced on his journey so far. His eyes slowly began to get heavy as he lay in the dark, thinking about what lay ahead and the people he had ended up leaving behind. Eventually he drifted off into sleep, silently wondering what his parents were doing.

 Chapter 41: The Lonely Wife

    The morning came around and the three companions began moving as early as possible. If they were going to charter an airship then they needed to either be the first to speak to the captain, or be lucky enough to find a ship already chartered in the direction they wanted to go. It took almost a hundred days to get thus far, so getting to the stele before the year was up was imperative to the group. They were so rushed because the sixth floor testing room was different, if they could not reach the fifth floor within a year of leaving the fourth floor both Laurence and Yun would have to wait an entire year in the testing room. Louisa had told both boys that every five floors the testing room was different.


    They left their room, entering the hustle and bustle of the streets outside. The day was a warm one, with the huge sun beating down upon the heads of the masses that crawled below it. As they were preparing to go out Louisa and Yun had ironed out a plan to cover as many of the captains in Slipstream as they possibly could. Before the day was out they would cover every captain in the city, and using any means at their disposal they had to at least find one captain before the day was over. The longer they searched the harder the situation would be as there were only so many captains in the city.


    They moved to the city docks and split up, with Laurence heading for the bars, Louisa headed for the docks proper and Yun headed for the surrounding streets. If just one could get lucky, then it would save so much time over taking pre-chartered ships from port to port. Not only would the pre-chartered ships take a much longer route they would stop at every minor port that they came across to pick up and drop off goods or people.


    Even on a beautifully sunny day like the day was, sailors would still find an excuse to get drunk in a tavern or public house. Something about being in confined spaces with lots of other people for most of the year drove them to it, so Louisa had told Laurence that he would likely have the best luck when it came to finding a captain to fly them to their journey. Louisa would have done it herself, but people like her were less than welcome in most of the seedier parts of dock-towns. All they could really do was bet that one of them got lucky.


    The day went by, with the heat slowly making even the slightest movement a chore, but not one of the three companions had an ounce of luck. Laurence had been laughed out of some places, and cursed out of most. There was something that the sailors disliked about the journey that was being suggested to them, but none of them would say why. Yun fared no better, with the street-sellers and passersby being profoundly unhelpful out downright rude at times. Louisa was simply ignored.


    After trawling through twelve taverns Laurence came across a short, messy alley. Litter was strewn across the floor in front of the doorways and over the paths. The alley stank of fetid meat and spoiled beer, all originating from a tavern, a place called ¡°The Lonely Wife¡±. It was a rundown affair, with more boards in the windows than glass and a clientele which reflected that. The building creaked in next to no wind, and loomed precariously over the pavement in front of it, proudly threatening to collapse at any moment from disrepair. It was a place that no and man would enter, let alone drink in. It was the last tavern on the street Laurence was in so he decided to look inside, more out of a sense of completion than actual hope.


    He pushed open the door to the establishment and watched with interest as a bar brawl was evolving into what looked like full on warfare. A man with short blond hair was caving in the nose of a man with much longer, greasier black hair while the occupants of this tavern were holding each other at knife, hook, sword and even bottle-point. Beneath the two men was a painting of a beautiful woman, shorn in two by a long blade. It was obvious the blond man was punching the black haired man because of something about the painting below, but Laurence had no idea what. Laurence could not help but take advantage of the odd situation the tavern was in. Silent but for the sound of a fist repeatedly striking flesh, the bar was a perfect place for Laurence to ask about captains available to charter. He had found that taverns would often be far too loud a place for people to hear him.


    ¡°Excuse me, is there anyone here who is a captain available for charter?¡± None of the men looked at Laurence as he spoke, but eight men put their empty hands up to signify they were captains. This included the man who was getting his face beaten in. ¡°Are any of you willing to take myself and two companions to the northern continent?¡± Three men put their hands down. ¡°We''d need you to take the fastest route possible, to make no stops on the way.¡± Four more hands fell. The only hand left up was that of the man being beaten at the bar.


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    ¡°Excuse me sir, I need to speak to the man you''re hitting.¡± Said Laurence to the blond man.


    ¡°If it''s about him leaving Slipstream, then yeah, you can talk to the scumbag.¡± He growled, spitting on the bloody-faced man. ¡°If I hear about my Lily and Mr Jonas Fetters again in the same sentence, I will find you and I will kill you.¡± He slammed the captain''s head against the counter he was pushed up to and walked out the door, with a third of the men in the room following his heels.


    The room came alive when the blond man left; some men sat down again and sheathed their weapons, some kept fighting, and some simply walked out of the building. Laurence walked over to the captain who had heeded his request, Jonas, and smiled at him. ¡°My name is Laurence. Shall we talk about business then Mr... Er, Mr Fetters?¡±


    ¡°Please, call me Jonas. Kiddo, I don''t expect you to understand but the only reason I am even talking to you is in the faint hope that you might be able to make leaving port early worth it. If you can make it worth my time then we will go where you want, otherwise we will just go to the next port and continue trading.¡±


    Jonas began wiping the blood off and inspecting himself as he leant against the bar. Every few seconds he would wince as he found a sore spot or open cut on his face, or had to pull his long, matted hair out of quickly congealing scabs of dried blood.


    ¡°What do you want as payment for the journey then? Also are you okay? That man was hitting you for a long time.¡±


    ¡°It''s okay. It''s mostly flesh wounds.¡± Jonas said, checking his teeth for loose ones. After a few seconds he puked his hand out of his mouth and took one of his molars with it. ¡°It''s a lot of flesh wounds.¡± He said, correcting himself. ¡°The average fee to charter a ship is either a gold shard, a fifth of a full load for the ship or an initial Saint tier artifact. I''ll happily take half that, seeing as I can only make a loss in Slipstream this time. If you can get me fifty silver shards by tomorrow morning then my crew will take you where you want to go.¡±


    ¡°I can deal with that.¡± Laurence replied. ¡°I could also fix your nose if you like, my father taught me how. It will take a few seconds, but better a normal nose than a flat one.¡± Laurence paused, recalling his issues finding a captain. ¡°Why did so many captains not want to take my friends and I straight to the northernmost continent? You were at least the hundredth captain I asked, so was I really that unlucky?¡±


    ¡°I''d say you were pretty lucky finding me when you did, kiddo.¡± Jonas said, wincing as Laurence rearranged his nose with surgical precision. ¡°There''s a rumour going round that a Maelstrom Snake had shown up round here. It''s apparently chewing up any trade ship that goes off the beaten routes, which is what we would need to do to get you to the north as fast as possible.¡±


    ¡°What''s a maelstrom snake?¡±


    ¡°A huge snake, some people say that at their smallest they are as big as my ship while at their biggest they are hundreds of meters long. They fly and bring stormfronts with them wherever they go, which is why most people fear them. Out in the endless sky an approaching storm can be a death knell for an entire ship. If you enter one you''ll likely just disappear, never to appear again. The storms are why maelstrom snakes are considered the strongest pseudo-dragons, the strongest non-immortal beasts.¡±


    ¡°Sounds frightening.¡± Said Laurence, voice devoid of any emotion. He quickly finished organising the shape of Louis¡¯ noise and laid a mana mesh over it, forcing the nose to heal in a correct shape.


    ¡°It is. Now, my ship is called Rosie¡¯s Demise and we are on the eighth dock. If you aren''t there by midday tomorrow then I will cast off without you.¡± Finally the captain pushed off of the counter and stumbled out of the bar. ¡°Toodleoo kiddo!¡±

 Chapter 42: The Box

    Laurence rushed back to the tavern and up to the shared room as soon as Jonas left to bar. He did not have much time but needed to create an item of Saint tier for his party to continue to travel through the floor. Sitting down on his bed, he emptied out all of the materials from his little bag. At some point in the third floor he had discovered that the bag was actually in the Book of Creation. It was called a bag of holding or a portable dimension there, so he began calling it the former.


    Laurence could not get enough from the Book of Creation. It seemed to have some sort of inbuilt safety mechanism which stopped any person reading it from absorbing too much information in one sitting, so every time he re-read the book he would come across a new item or a new technique for creating. It was not until his sixth re-reading that he had discovered the concept of array making and a lot of the issues that people came up against when crafting using trueforming as a base.


    The act of trueforming cut down the process steps of making a tool, but it also meant that a key component of the process was missing. Creation of any tool could be shown as having several steps. First one would find their materials and design the object, then one would go about crafting its physical form. Once the form is complete the creator would inscribe the necessary glyphs upon the tool that give it power with mana injection. After this they would insert socketable gems, which Laurence discovered were used for two things: Law masquerading and as an array battery. An array would often contain a power that could be formed in the glyph laying stage but was self sustaining rather than requiring an injection of mana. This meant that as tools for supporting a challenger they were far superior to a simple glyphed object, but for all offensive objects or powerful defensive objects they were far inferior.


    The reason why trueforming was a useful tool and not the entire process of creation was actually a rather simple one; within creating something you would inject a portion of a power that every person had but only done could activate. When a person embarks on the path to ascension they gain two powers, mana and spirit. Mana gives form to the laws of your path, the elements of the world that you explore to gain longevity. Spirit however, governs your control over the aspects of the laws you are using. Unlike mana spirit is not represented in the reservoir of a challenger¡¯s body, but rather is shown in the aura that a person exudes. When doing anything the small amount of aura that is injected into the action shows people that you performed it, and the more skilled the action the more aura is injected. Once an object is infused with enough of its creator¡¯s aura it takes on that will, that intention, and begins to develop it into its own. The reason why Laurence had to follow so many steps to create something was because just trueforming an object into the final shape, with all the glyphs inside it, did not give the tool a will of its own and self will was what separated the initial grade of any ranked weapon from the advanced grade.


    Laurence did not realise that most of his early works were actually arrays, lacking a battery they would absorb the essence from the object they were part of until they decayed and crumbled to dust. He did not intend for that to be the case ever again.


    After weeks of practice and trials Laurence had finally managed to set up several arrays. Today would be the culmination of his work so far, today he would create his first advanced grade Saint artifact. He spent an hour studying the materials in front of him and separated them into three groups.


    The biggest group was the pile that was going back into his bag. The second biggest pile was that of materials that Laurence intended to trueform together into similar but higher grade materials. They were of a quality that was below the Saint tier that Laurence was searching for, but through combination and fusion they would be raised in quality to the point where they would fit with his intention. This pile contained ten objects: a few kinds of wood, some metal and three of the gemstones that Laurence had found on the cavernous third floor. The third pile was that of the materials already good enough for processing and building into what Laurence had in mind. He had spent the last four weeks trying to pin down how to make the perfect storage unit, one that would run with a time dilation within it, have a self contained dimension inside and also be compact enough to easily carry. It was the perfect thing to get a trader like Jonas on his side, but he would have to construct it first.


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    He put the largest pile back into his bag of holding and quickly refined the ten objects into three sets of metal, wood and gemstone. All three masses of material were extremely high quality composites but could not be considered a true Saint tier material. The fact that he had to trueform them into existence would give them a small amount of aura but not as much compared to the aura level that Saint tier materials naturally contained. The other materials were a small amount of leather from Garral, the Orik that he killed when he first arrived in Babel, and the black gemstone he got from the third floor.


    Now that Laurence had amassed the materials he needed he began to shape the wood, whittling it all into a form that he desired. He made the wood into two small boxes then sanded and polished them, setting them aside once he was finished. The next part was the casing and the mount for the gem which would involve the metal used. Laurence summoned his hammer and ignited it, extending the flame and wrapping it around the metal until it was soft and malleable, then he shrank his hammer into a manageable sized and beat the metal until it was the shape he desired. He cut the metal into four separate sections, two for the frames of the boxes, one for the hinges, lock and mount, and one for an idea that he had just before he began the process. Once the metal was shaped he quenched everything by cutting it off from the world around it with a bubble of mana, rapidly cooling the metal and solidifying its general shape. He formed a file out of mana and began to shave down the rough edges of things until everything was as smooth and sharp as he needed it to be, then assembled the metal and wooden parts together. Once he had done that he used some of the lesser gems to add colour to the boxes, while finally finishing with the black gems mounted in the center of the boxes.


    The two boxes were set up, but not complete. Before they were, Laurence had to add all the glyphs onto the two boxes and complete the array for each one.


    The array took the shortest time of all the processes, but the entire task to make the two portable dimension boxes took three hours. Laurence was doing the finishing touches when Yun and Louisa both arrived back at their room. They both looked dejected after an entire day of failure but when they saw Laurence sitting on his bed, item cut offs strewn all around him and a big grin spread across his face.


    ¡°Did you have any luck guys?¡± He said to his despondent friends.


    ¡°No we didn¡¯t.¡± Growled Yun. ¡°But I know that smug grin of yours. You found one didn¡¯t you?¡± He jumped on his bed, kicking off his boots that he reluctantly wore and got comfortable.


    ¡°I did. I fixed a captain¡¯s nose and just finished making the payment for him. We have to be at the eighth dock before midday tomorrow and we can get to the stele!¡±


    ¡°Well then, we¡¯d better get rested up for the journey. It¡¯s going to be a rocky ride.¡± Said Louisa.

 Chapter 43: The Good Ship Rosie

    The ship was a monstrosity. There was no other word for it. It was more like a tube with wings than any real ship. Even the other airships around it had the decency to at least look ship-like, and yet there was a perverse charm to it. It was like a middle finger to the world that was ridden by a captain and a crew known for being uncompromising madmen. Laurence thought it was beautiful.


    The wood finish was soft and smooth, the curve of the nose was flawless - even at the point where the glass of the windshield intersected with the chassis, and despite how it looked on the outside it was capable of being run by three people but worked optimally with twenty. It was a feat of engineering, design and craftsmanship that Laurence could not help but be impressed with. Only Yun truly understood his fervour, but Laurence¡¯s stoic brother simply watched on as the boy asked a thousand and one questions about every single design choice and whittle stroke. It was not the first time Yun had seen Laurence act this way, but it was the first time he had seen him to this extreme. It was refreshing, and an excellent distinction to the awful way Laurence got after he fought or killed someone.


    Seeing the crew come out Laurence waved at Jonas and ushered him over. ¡°Jonas, I have the payment for you in this sack but we might want to go somewhere private so I can tell you what it is.¡±


    This piqued the captain¡¯s interest. Never did he think that Laurence would choose to charter the ship for an artefact rather than the money, but there the boy was implying it was also a powerful one. He ushered everyone on board and then took Laurence to his quarters, to decide if the boy had paid for the journey or not.


    ¡°Right then, kiddo, what is your payment that had to be kept secret?¡±


    Laurence closed the door and put the burlap sack on the table. Pulling the coarse material down around the artefact he revealed the chest to the captain. It was a beautiful little chest with metal edging and a lacquered finish, a few gemstones littered the top of the box but they all artfully framed the small black stone in the middle of the lid. Runes were artfully scored into the metal cage that surrounded the box. There were thousands of them, each one representative of a single attribute that would interlink with another glyph to form a characteristic chain which, in turn, would define the power of the little box in front of them both.


    ¡°This is a treasure I made.¡± Said Laurence. The moment he said those six words Jonas frowned and his eyes went wide. Laurence did not realise it but he was going to cause a storm with his existence. ¡°You''ll want to bind it with blood, seeing as the mana in your body is insufficient for a spiritual binding. If you just put a couple of drops of blood on the black gemstone in the middle you will have complete control over the item.¡±


    ¡°Hold up, hold up. Kid, you made this?¡± Interrupted Jonas. If the child was a member of the Hephaistia clan then that knowledge alone would make him a very rich man. Laurence nodded in assent. ¡°Kid... I hate that I''m going to tell you this, but seriously do not mention that you can make artefacts to anyone. Arrays are fine, any one of the six clans can do that, but artefacts?¡± He paused, rubbing his eyes. ¡°Damn kiddo, just tell me what the chest does.¡±


    ¡°If you insist.¡± Laurence replied. The way Jonas reacted just now had echoed the way his father had spoken when he first showed his creations. While hiding his creations seemed fundamentally wrong to Laurence, he could see that the people he told were often stunned by the revelation. ¡°Why is it so important I hide that I can make artefacts?¡±


    ¡°Kid, the fact that you can make artefacts means you study the book of creation. This book went missing around eight years ago. For some reason one day every practitioner of the book of creation, every member of the Hephaistia clan, just upped and left. No one knows where they went, but within two months of them all leaving the symbol of the clan had been wiped off the great gateways.¡± Jonas looked at Laurence, watching to see if he could glean a reaction from his description, but rather than an obvious sense of Laurence trying to hide something all Jonas had gained was Laurence¡¯s rapt attention. ¡°It¡¯s never happened before, not in the thousands of cycles since the creation of the tower. Since then the powers that be that run the tower have paid riches for any information on the Book of Creation or the Hephaistia clan. So, kid, are you a member of the Hephaistia clan?¡±


    ¡°I''m not. My name is Laurence Absolution, and my parents are Angus and Maris Absolution. My father is also known as ¡®Bloody Gus¡¯ apparently, the guardian of an entrance to the tower from one of the outer spaces. Yes, I cultivate with the Book of Creation but I may be an Absolution experiment to see if they could gain two books.¡±


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    Jonas swore. The gold mine he had found was one with several dragons inside. Unless he was willing to disturb the beasts protecting the hoard then the information the boy just have him was almost entirely worthless. ¡°Alright kid, tell me how the chest works then. What makes it so special?¡±


    ¡°Well, it¡¯s a bit of a complicated creation that works in three parts.¡± Laurence opened the bottom of the box rather than the top. Inside the base was a very small compartment with a ring of sigils around the base. ¡°The base section here can only be opened by me or the binder of the box. It contains a pocket dimension which is five meters cubed in size and can store any non-living object in it that fits that.¡± He closed the bottom of the box. Putting a small key in the lock he opened the chest revealing an empty middle. ¡°The key is also special, but I will get onto that after I have finished with the chest. Inside you have a small space to store curios that you want people to know you have. This way anyone who thinks you have a set of gems can look in there and perhaps see some of the smaller gems, but the bigger ones would be hidden away. The book referred to this kind of thing as a facade. Now on to the final part.¡±


    Jonas could not help but gawp at the little box in front of him. It was extremely valuable just from the fact that it contained a stable pocket dimension, but the facade on the front made it an incredibly enticing item. The fact that there was still more within the little box raised its value again and again.


    ¡°The real value of the box comes from the black gem on the top. The top half is an access point to an even larger space, one that runs at an hour per second difference. An hour to us will be a second inside the box. The space is twenty five meters squared and chilled because the space I made didn¡¯t have a heat source inside. The bottom half of the gem, the side that is protected by the rest of the case, has a seal upon it which locks it in place. Once again, only I or the binder can move it. So in summary, it¡¯s a box with two storage spaces and a gravitational binding.¡± He locked the chest again and showed Jonas the key. ¡°This is the bit that makes the chest special. This key is one that binds into the skin, so once you bind it the thing will sink into your skin as a tattoo, like the ones Challengers have. It was where I got the idea actually. Not only does it unlock the chest to keep with the facade, it also has a very small space inside it, one that can only fit the chest inside it.


    ¡°After making the space I realised it would have been easier to make a general pocket dimension than the one I did, but I doubt I could have added the special capability in the key.¡±


    ¡°What special capability?¡±


    ¡°The binder of the key can transport the box into its personal dimension at any time, no matter how far away the box is from you or the key. You could even just use the chest as a money pouch and people would be none-the-wiser.¡±


    The more Jonas heard the more he could not believe the item in front of him was a Saint tier item. It was more like one of the mythical Ascendant tier items with a million uses, each one more practical than the last but held in a nondescript ring. ¡°Are you sure this is a Saint tier item?¡± He said, carefully trying to hide his excitement and shock at what he had been shown.


    ¡°Oh yes, the materials I used were bad. If I had Heaven tier gemstones I could have made the spaces contain living things, so you could have carried livestock or used a section as a prison or something. In a story my father read to me once there was a man who was kept imprisoned in a ring for over a hundred years.¡± Laurence paused, thinking for a second about what he could have done with better materials. Finally a grin lit his face and his eyes brightened. ¡°I could have made the chest into something less gaudy for starters, a ring is the classic pocket dimension holder so I could have made that. I could have made the dimension bigger. I could have also made the time difference, the Book calls it ¡®time dilation¡¯, much greater. To the point where a year happens outside while a second goes by in the ring in fact. I wanted to make it flip between slow down and speed up by that increased the power draw by tenfold, even on three or four second differences, so I doubt I can do that without a lot of experimentation but...¡±


    ¡°Enough, please, you''ve proved your point. The item you''ve given me is still valuable beyond compare. More than enough to certify us taking you on your journey.¡± Jonas quickly cut his hand open and placed the bloody palm on the key and the chest. The two of them watched as the blood was absorbed by the objects then as the key sank into Jonas¡¯ skin and the chest disappeared. Smiling he looked back at the boy. ¡°Welcome to the ship, kiddo! I hope you enjoy your journey.¡±

 Chapter 44: Sleepy

    The early days of the journey were rather slow for Laurence, Yun and Louisa. They spent a few hours dealing with the turbulence and then the rest of the time either sleeping or working on some edifice of their cultivation that they understood less of than they should have. It helped bottle Laurence and Louisa to have Yun around because, while he was working towards becoming an immortal creator, he was naturally gifted in the process of Physical Ascension. The fact that he could instruct Louisa and converse with Laurence meant that their days were often filled with relaxed esoteric chatter.


    Eventually, despite his boundless thirst for learning, Laurence began to tire in listening to Yun and Louisa talk about things that were far above what he understood of the subject. So when they began discussing The Shift he would explore the ship they flew in.


    The ship¡¯s insides were as wonderful to Laurence as on the outside, filled with interesting design choices and shapes that were beautiful in their simplicity. He spent hours just walking round the ship and looking at all the idiosyncrasies that made Rosie¡¯s Demise the airship that Jonas loved so much, but even that was not enough to keep his attention permanently. The rest of the time he spent just sitting on the skydeck of the ship, feeling the wind blow through his air as they soared over the desolate land below.


    One day, around a week into the journey, Laurence was sitting on the skydeck when a young woman came up to sit next to him. They both stared out into the distance for half an hour before the woman spoke. ¡°I love the streams. Each slipstream that the airships run on has a different scent and feeling as we ride them. Some are fast, some are slow, and some are turbulent to the point of being dangerous.¡± Her voice was rapturous as she spoke of the pathways of wind that the ship flew on. ¡°I''ve seen you walking round the ship before, but I never expected you to sit on the skydeck and appreciate the wind like I do. I''m Dunwu, but most of the people in the ship call me Sleepy if they want to keep their face intact. What¡¯s your name?¡±


    ¡°I¡¯m Laurence. Why do you have two names? And why will you attack people if they use the first name you told me? I don¡¯t understand.¡± Laurence cocked his head.


    ¡°It¡¯s because my half-brother is captain of the vessel and he introduced me as Dunwu when I first got on the ship. I¡¯ve always hated that name, but he still introduces me to people that way to annoy me.¡± She leant back, allowing the wind to properly run through her long black hair. ¡°People started calling me Sleepy when I took on the role of engineer. There was so much to fix on here originally, but that¡¯s why my brother bought it so cheaply. For a good three months I had next to no sleep because there was so much to fix. I ended up looking like a grumpy monster with huge bags under my eyes.¡± She laughed into the wind then lay spread eagle on the floor. ¡°It was worth it though, to get all of this flying in the sky.¡±


    ¡°It was. Everything I¡¯ve seen since getting on the ship was really well maintained. If the ship was a wreck when you got it then I¡¯m impressed. All the workmanship has been flawless. If you fixed up this entire ship in three months then you are a gifted mechanic.¡± Laurence smiled, looking at the tanned woman beside him. He had already realised that she would be a perfect vessel for spreading the Book of Creation. Since he met Damascus he had began thinking about how to spread his book. He knew that there were likely next to no practitioners of the Book left in Babel because if there were, people would not treat him as such a commodity. Every so often he would come across people like Jake or Trevor, or now Sleepy who he felt like deserved to learn from the book. He could not tell if they had good character but when they had potential to become a practitioner of the book he would get a strange feeling in his gut and a couple of days later there would be a book for them to learn from.


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    ¡°I never said that I fixed everything in three months. In fact I still don¡¯t think this ship is anywhere near finished. It just took me three months to realise I was doing worse work when I was sleep deprived than when I was well rested. If I was smarter I would have realised that sooner.¡± Standing up, she began to stretch her legs, letting her long, loose trousers roll back down over her calves and bare feet. ¡°If you want I could show you round the ship. I could tell you how things work.¡± She held out her hand. ¡°But in return you have to tell me why you''re such an odd child.¡±


    Laurence grasped the hand without a second thought. The knowledge of how this ship worked would be helpful to him, but he would have taken the tour anyway. Telling the woman about himself took no effort on his part, and he felt like he had no reason to hide things from her. She would find out the one thing he needed to be hidden from people because of her brother anyway. ¡°Deal.¡±


    ¡°Well we may as well start with the skydeck, seeing as we are on it.¡± She swept her hand in front of her. ¡°Welcome to the main access port of Rosie¡¯s Demise. From this point on I will be conducting a detailed tour of the ship we are standing on.¡± They both laughed at Sleepy¡¯s feigned seriousness. ¡°I really like the skydeck, mainly because there is a set of ?Array Markers? at key points round the floor that make the wind less powerful up here. It obviously can''t stop storms or tornadoes, but for things like the winds we make while we travel it quashes them.¡±


    ¡°What''s an array marker? And what''s a quash?¡± Interrupted Laurence. Reading the Book had given him an incredible vocabulary, especially in fields of creative learning; it was not perfect, however.


    ¡°Quash is a word that means to suppress, or to flatten. As for an array marker, they are items that dictate a range or location for an array. There are markers all over the ship that correspond to a specific array in the engine room, but I''ll show you that later. You know about the entry hatch that we take to get out here, but you see this depression in the floor?¡± She pointed at an area about a meter away from where Laurence sat. He nodded after having a quick look. ¡°That is the second array up here. The depression only occurs when it''s deactivated, but when it''s active you can step on it and it will swap your space with the space that is currently inhabiting the matching array point in the brig.¡±


    ¡°Can you activate it now?¡± Laurence¡¯s eyes glittered as he thought about the concept of instant transpiration. He had tried to work out the concept of how a set of symbols that he repeated could pull an item into a special dimension but a key concept had avoided him. Giving his most winning smile he said, ¡°I really want to know how this works.¡±


    ¡°Aren''t you a cute one.¡± Said Sleepy. ¡°Unfortunately I can''t. We literally cannot turn it on while the ship is in movement. If we did then you might end up inside a crate or something.¡± She frowned, ¡°I''m not sure about the specifics because we''ve never tried it, but that could happen if we were moving quick enough.


    ¡°Either way, that''s basically everything up here. Do you want to see the bridge?¡±


    ¡°The bridge? Why do you have a river on a ship?¡±

 Chapter 45: Physical Ascension

    Laurence and Sleepy spent the next few hours exploring the ins and outs of the ship. The more Laurence saw of the vessel, the more impressed he was. It was a marvellous feat of magic, the universal laws and craftsmanship, beyond anything Laurence had seen below Heaven tier in his book. It was full to the brim with array markers, many of which were for arrays that the boy had never come across before. He thought that he knew everything there was to know about any form of creation, but the more he learned the more he realised how wrong he was.


    In the Book of Creation there were eighteen arrays, and a section on the fundamentals of array crafting. Of the eighteen, six were for combat and the other twelve were utility based. These eighteen arrays were useful beyond a doubt, and Laurence would not have been able to create the box he gave Jonas without them, but by the time he and Sleepy had explored half the ship he had seen over a hundred utility arrays he had never come across, and only three he knew. He was happy there was so much to learn, but this was the first time Laurence had ever found the Book lacking.


    By the time night fell, the two were firm friends. Sleepy was about to show Laurence the engine room when her brother caught up with them both.


    ¡°Dunwu, could you go to the bridge? Yannis smashed one of the markers when we encountered that patch of turbulence earlier. He fell right on it.¡±


    ¡°Again? I swear he breaks them on purpose. We lose at least one every trip because of him.¡± Sleepy muttered. ¡°Well, he''s called Zoo for a reason. The man is clumsier than a damn elephant and he wonders why I reject the flowers he gets me every time we arrive at port. I''ll come up now. Do you want to wait for me, Laurence? I''ll only be half hour.¡±


    ¡°Nah, It''s okay.¡± Said Laurence. ¡°I need to catch up on my training for today, but I would love to see the engine tomorrow.¡± His eyes shone with a light of reverence. Sleepy could be very hard on herself, but she was good company and not engaged in things Laurence could not understand half the time. ¡°I will call on you once I finish my morning studies, if that''s alright with you?¡±


    ¡°Sure, but I might not be awake.¡±


    With that they parted ways. Sleepy moved off to the bridge with her brother, and Laurence returned to the room he was sharing with Yun and Louisa. He was almost knocked over by a shock wave when he opened the door, as Louisa sat on the floor and glowed with the light of mana flooding her skin and bones.


    He watched on in shock while her body began shifting, changing so that the woman lost her features that made her noticeably one of the Vermilion clan. Her feathers and beak shifted into hair and a human face, ears grew and her wings became arms. At the end of the bizarre transformation there was a young woman left sitting on the floor with short blue hair, falcon-like eyes and pale skin. One would not describe her as beautiful, but rather striking or stunning. She stood up with bird-like grace and began laughing. ¡°I succeeded!¡± She yelled. ¡°I actually became a Saint of Physical Ascension. I can''t believe it.¡± She choked out as she began to cry. ¡°I can''t believe it.¡±


    Dancing round the room, the light footed woman yelled in joy at her new form. She lay down on Yun¡¯s bed and beamed with happiness until she felt a creeping realisation that she was no longer covered by the feathers that kept her warm and covered her modesty. Her face turned beet-red and she quickly covered her body with the duvet Yun had been given.


    ¡°Can someone get me some clothes? I don''t have any.¡±


    ¡°I could find Sleepy, she might have some?¡± Said Laurence, not really understanding why the woman was so frantic to cover herself. Both Laurence and Yun had seen her with no clothes on before, so he could not work out why it bothered her so much now.


    ¡°Who''s Sleepy, brother?¡± Said Yun.


    ¡°She''s the engineer of the ship. Jonas is her brother. I met her today and she gave me the full tour of the ship today; it was really interesting.¡±


    ¡°The girl who looks like an exotic dancer? I''m not going to fit into any of her clothes, I''m proportioned all wrong for it.¡± She sighed and then grinned mischievously. Fluttering her eyelashes she said, ¡°Yun, will you make some clothes for me? Don''t you think I deserve a prize?¡±


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    The wolf growled and looked at his brother, pleading for his help. ¡°I could give you a couple of bolts of cloth if you would like. Blue or Green?¡± Said Laurence, quickly pulling out two large rolls of low quality silk. Yun looked at Laurence then Louisa and sighed, grabbing the bolts of cloth and beginning work.


    ¡°So how does Physical Ascension even work? I can understand the process of the tower, tempering you with the mana of the tower until your body and spirit are eternal, and invulnerable to time and entropy. I have to know the books, strengthening you through knowledge and through skill. I don''t get how your path works at all.¡± Said Laurence. ¡°How did you change a ¡®divine skill¡¯ into a path to immortality?¡±


    ¡°It was difficult, but because divine animals take a step in the path every time they reach a stage of immortality my family worked out they might be able to copy those steps. First to change the form, then the pigment, third the spirit, and finally the memory.¡±


    ¡°So how does that work? Does your soul take a shape like mine and Yun¡¯s? Do you have to reach maximum understanding to keep going? Why those steps?¡± Laurence bubbled.


    ¡°Calm down, Laurence. My soul does take shape. It takes the shape of my current body, and is how I can shift into anything I want but never lose my form amongst those shifts. As for understanding, I originally thought it was about that. It turns out I was wrong though. Physical ascension is the ability to change everything about yourself, so to progress you need to learn control over your entire body. If you can gain control over your shape you take the first step, then the second step is gaining control over your cells to the point where you can change their colour to change the way the pigment in your skin or hair looks. If you achieve that then supposedly it is possible to change the cells so breathing through the mouth is unnecessary and eating just becomes standing in the sun for fifteen minutes.


    ¡°If you can get to the third stage, then you gain complete control over your spirit, or aura, and can change that as well. At that point you become the ultimate spy, undetectable through anything other than skill tests. Even that becomes useless at the fourth stage. At the fourth stage you can control the casual ties between you and another person as long as that person is not stronger than you spiritually. If Physical Ascension Immortals are considered the greatest spies, then Ascendant Immortals are considered far and away the most insidious life invaders. They can come and go while you choose to let them in and forget they were ever there. You could be fighting them to the death one second and be their best friend the next. Truly, the only way to stop a Ascendant Immortal of my clan is to have a stronger spirit. I guess luckily for you the Ascension path that we take means that our strongest cannot compare to even a single Immortal from one of the Book clans. Whether it be for will or inner strength, your crucible is far more rigorous than ours.¡±


    ¡°That sounds incredible!¡± Said Laurence, his eyes as wide as saucers. They continued to discuss the comparative nature of their chosen paths while Yun sewed, talking well into the night. As Yun finished sewing the beautiful dress that was more reminiscent of the sea than the sky, an array marker crackled into life and Jonas¡¯ voice came out. The sound was as if he was in the room, so clear that all three of the room''s occupants turned to the door and expected to see him there.


    ¡°Attention all, this is the captain speaking.¡± He began. ¡°Are you sure this is going to work, Sis? What do you mean they can still hear me? Oh! Yes. Umm, ignore that. Just announcing to the ship that we are about to be slipping out of the current stream and through free air for a few days. It should be fine, but there will be some turbulence while Sleepy shifts over from the gliding array to the propulsion array. Captain out.¡± Jonas paused for a second before continuing, ¡°Glad that''s over. I don''t understand half the arrays you''ve installed on the ship, but they work well. They won''t do much good if a maelstrom snake shows up though. That''s the only thing I worry about in free air. If they are going to show up, it will be there.¡± There was another pause. ¡°What do you mean I shouldn''t be continuing to hold the array marker? It doesn''t make sound unless... Oh shi-.¡±


    Silence rolled over the ship as everyone processed what they had accidentally heard. Some worried, some cried, some even prayed to any god that would take them. Laurence laughed at the chance to come across the creature that put fear into the hearts of so many men. The night trembled on as the airship drove twenty-three men and women to their fates.

 Chapter 46: Fog Closes In

    At around four the following afternoon, the ship ran into a cloud bank. Seemingly coming from nowhere the cloud quickly covered the entirety of the vessel, effectively blinding them. They drove their vessel for several hours through the fog until the meagre light that was coming through finally dimmed into nothing.


    It was not unheard of for cloud banks like this to come into fruition quickly, but amongst the crew there was that nagging feeling that perhaps the cloud bank was a maelstrom snake trapping them and preparing to strike. It was said the snakes killed purely for fun and as a show of power to potential mates. This was just hearsay, as there were very few people who survived a maelstrom snake attack, but it did not stop everyone from spreading old wives tales about the kings of this sky.


    Laurence ignored all of it once he began hearing contradictory statements, he just focused on what he could know - the arrays. From the moment he woke up to the moment he went to bed he studied the arrays on the ship, learning more and more. As he looked at each of the arrays he began to realise there were parts of their construction that linked seemingly unrelated arrays together.


    He delved more into the study of arrays while looking at the Book of Creation and slowly came to the realisation that the twenty arrays written inside were the foundations for making any and all arrays. Combining the basic array networks in different ways always gave a result, but it varied on the order Laurence placed the arrays and which he gave the most access to the battery. He realised that, depending on his upper limit on how many arrays that he used on a single item, there was possibly billions and billions of different arrays. Discovering this made him more excited than almost any other thing he had come across in his journey so far.


    In the blink of an eye, three fog covered days went by, without Laurence¡¯s notice. Normally he would be training or looking at something in his Book, but instead he studied, asked questions of Sleepy, and recorded his discoveries in the Absolution Codex. Finally, on the fourth day, he stopped analysing arrays. He had gained a thorough understanding of the most basic arrays and came to realise that for every single array possible there were at least eight variants depending on the battery used, multiplying the potential amount of arrays possible.


    He was elated at the learning he had made during the time he had spent inside the engine of the ship, but when he finally left it he realised that he was the only person who felt that way. There was a sense of trepidation at the fact that they had been traveling for four days through this cloud and there was no end in sight. The navigation array told the crew that they were still going in the right direction but they could not see it. It also told them that they weren''t alone in the fog. It was getting closer every day, and no one knew what to make of it. There was a chance that it could just be another ship, but the chance was slim. Just in case, Sleepy had been situated within the engine, ready to add another battery to the propulsion array if they needed to get out at speed.


    Jonas tried to lighten the mood with the occasional broadcast of what had been going on in the ship that day, but it was not helping as much as he might like. There was something out in the clouds with the crew, and they knew it was coming for them. The days ticked by and the little blip on the navigation panel continued to get closer. It was like whatever it was knew exactly how fast the ship was going and was flying just faster, so it would catch up, but not in any hurry. This lethargic stalking made the crew of sky pilots more and more erratic. They were not yet at each other''s throats, but the ship was split into three distinct factions. They either believed the captain made the right choice, the wrong choice, or that everyone was going to die and it was pointless to argue. The crew would often argue over it, but it was soon clear that less and less of them supported the captain.


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    On the eighth day the pilot saw their stalker for the first time. It was about a meter and a half wide, light blue and at least twenty meters long. He could not see it clearly but knew one thing without a doubt. This stalker was fast.


    The nine men and women of the ¡®kill it¡¯ faction clamoured at the information they had been given by the pilot. At less than two meters in width meant that if one of the two cannon arrays on the ship hit the beast, then it would be torn in half. That was assuming the beast was either less powerful than a Saint or that they could hit it. There was a third concern that no one was voicing, that this beast did not fit the descriptions of the maelstrom snake. The dreaded ruler of the sky in this floor was well known to bring storms, lightning and high winds, not clouds and fog.


    If no one knew what kind of creature it was, then there was no way for anyone to tell how the beast would react if they tried to shoot at it. If they failed to kill it then they could cause more harm to their lifeline than the creature originally would have. It was for that reason alone that the neutrals began to swing back around to joining the captain''s side. The neutrals belief that they were going to die did not mean they were suicidal, but rather that they had no faith that either of the options was the better course. They had sat on the fence since the day the navigators had first seen the beast, but now they had begun slowly shifting their support back to Jonas.


    The only reason the division had even happened was because Yannis, the first mate of the ship, had directly opposed the choice. He had opposed Jonas¡¯ choice so vehemently that he had formed the faction dedicated to killing the beast. People muttered about him having other motives to being such a dissident, but no one would ever directly say anything. He was a strong man, even if his battle scars had made him less than beautiful.


    Jonas¡¯ support swelled with the addition of the former neutrals and generally speaking the ship settled down, but there was still a level of distrust between the two groups. It was a miasma that filed the inside of the ship and made it as hard to function as the fog on the outside. Neither side would willingly back down, but the captain being on the larger side kept things civil.


    All was well until two days after the neutrals joined Jonas. The creature had increased in its passes of the ship, still not touching it, but coming close several times. Each pass would rattle the airship and the crew inside, then they would feel nothing for the next few hours. It was like the creature was playing with the lives of the crew, and Yannis¡¯ faction became both increasingly distressed and increasingly desperate. As the moon rose, and the sky darkened, dissent was truly in the air.

 Chapter 47: Mutiny!

    Laurence hit the deck. He had been sitting with Sleepy and chatting about craftsmanship when the fighting began. The mutiny had come out of nowhere, one moment people were chatting aimlessly while working within the ship, the next swords were drawn and fights were breaking out all around the bridge.


    As the pilot fought a mutineer the ship rolled and bucked uncontrollably, twisting too and fro in the air currents when it switched between its three flight modes. The crew were tossed like ragdolls as Rosie writhed, but eventually the ship settled into a steady ascent.


    The moment the ship began ascending Sleepy picked herself off the floor and quickly moved towards the heart of the ship. If she could get control of the engine then she could find out what the issue was. Quickly donning her jacket, she moved off to her target with Laurence in tow and saw the ship in disarray.


    There was a flashing red light that blinked through the hallway as the two of them ran through the ship. It put an ominous tone to the sounds of shouting and metal hitting metal above the two of them, but they still had no idea what had caused the sounds. Normally the ship was quiet thanks to a sound dampening array that covered its body, mainly to block out the sound of the wind that whipped by outside the vessel. Today, however, it was alive with the sounds of shouting and crashes.


    Sleepy¡¯s bare feet slapping against the hardwood surface was the only constant or clear sound that the pair could hear as they ran. Both of them could tell something was wrong, but not knowing what just lead to the two of them being more cautious than reckless. Had they known about the situation in the bridge they would have likely run there instead of the engine.


    ¡°So why are we going to the Engine?¡± Said Laurence. He floated along beside Sleepy as she ran, easily keeping up with her while barely touching the floor. A small amount of force would allow Laurence to push ahead quickly and simply glide for a few seconds while keeping up with his friend.


    ¡°I can find out what''s wrong with the ship there and fix it. Most people don''t realise, or care enough to know that engine controls the arrays on the entire ship. In fact the ship itself is basically excess weight that the arrays in the engine have to deal with.¡± Sleepy would not tell anyone, but she was immensely proud of the engine of the vessel. It had been a complete mess when her brother had first got the ship, and only through painstaking effort over two years had she fixed all the arrays back to the way they were when the ship had been created.


    Mere moments after they spoke, the two of them arrived at the engine. Laurence pushed open the door and saw the hundreds of brightly shining array batteries, many of them pulsing with use. Sleepy pushed three glass beads near the entrance and two screens formed from water flowed into being.


    ¡°What I''m doing,¡± She began, ¡°is checking that the arrays are working by looking at the path of energy from all the batteries,¡± She pointed at the left screen, ¡°and looking at the other screen to see if there is any physical da-.¡± She trailed off. On one of the images fluttering in the liquid screens was the bridge of the ship. It was cut to bits and covered with blood as the nine people within the vessel fought. There were bodies in the floor but it was impossible to tell whether they were alive or dead. The only thing that could be easily seen was that Jonas¡¯ side was losing.


    Laurence stood back and watched as Sleepy swung her fist through the screen. It simply split and reformed after her fist passed through it impotently, only adding to her frustration. She turned round and surveyed the room in front of her looking for something, anything, that could get her brother out of this mess he was in.


    ¡°I need to help him...¡± She muttered, more to herself than to anyone else. She ran around the room looking for anything at all that could save get brother from harm. ¡°Laurence, you''re smart and I''m panicking. Please help me save my brother. I need help.¡± Tears began to well up in her eyes as she saw another person from Jonas¡¯ side cut down. It was now four versus two, with the majority of the crew stuck behind a barricaded door into the bridge.


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    Laurence frowned. He did not understand why Sleepy wanted to save her brother so much, but his father had told him to always try to help your friends when they are in times of need. After a few more seconds he said, ¡°Find out what Yannis wants and agree to it. If I can''t get to your brother in time that is going to be the only way of saving his life.¡±


    ¡°Okay,¡± Sleepy replied, ¡°what are you going to do?¡±


    ¡°Deal with the problem by cutting out the rotten part.¡± With that Laurence turned and ran out of the room. He was in an odd predicament where he needed to run as fast as he could, but if he actually did that then he would slow himself down by making his footing far more unstable. Instead he performed that strange gliding skip that he had used to keep up with Sleepy. He would push off from the ground and propel himself forwards at high speeds, slowly slipping closer to the ground before pushing off again.


    The moment Laurence left the room the intercom crackled to life on the ship. Sleepy¡¯s voice flowed through the ship like sweet molasses as she said, ¡°Yannis, this is Sleepy. Why are you fighting my brother?¡±


    He paused a moment, letting one of his men smash into Jonas¡¯ final ally. The man crumpled once his chin came into contact with the end of his enemy''s metal pole. It was now one versus three. He picked up the stone he had seen Jonas use earlier on in the day and spoke. ¡°Dunwu,¡± He said, ¡°I am tired of treating a clown like a leader. I am tired of stepping round him when something violent needs to be done. If we kill the creature out there then we are free to take your friend and his half-breed nanny wherever they want, but the man leading all of us is a failure. Fire at the beast.¡±


    ¡°Why would I fire at the creature? it''s not like I can fire from here.¡±


    ¡°Rubbish. I know you control all the arrays in the ship from your little room. Do it now or your brother dies.¡±


    Sleepy saw Yannis¡¯ cutlass swing towards her brother, slowly and purposefully. She scanned the other images on the screen but could not see Laurence. With less than a second to go before her brother died she grabbed the bead to fire the lightning cannon on the bow.


    As the cannon swivelled and lined up its shot Laurence reached the final hallway. People instinctively moved out of the way of the door as he arrived because of the force he was running with. He summoned Jormugand, igniting the hammer, and slammed through the door as the first salvo fired off.


    The blade continued to edge closer as the cannons rocked the ship, never wavering, continuing to approach Jonas¡¯ neck. Even after the barricade behind the three standing members of the ¡®kill it¡¯ faction exploded, it continued its uninhibited path towards the death of the captain. It only stopped when it was forced upwards by Laurence. Disregarding everything else in the room, Laurence rolled through the debris, severed Zoo¡¯s arm at the elbow and cleaved his hammer. The arc picked up all three men and the moment he has them in his control he just hammered them into the floor.


    Yannis was in extreme pain, but the moment he heard Sleepy¡¯s voice crackle over the intercom he focused his thoughts. ¡°Target hit.¡± She said, a bitterness permeating her voice that was unmissable. The fog began to dissipate and the sky cleared. It was beautiful to be able to see the sun again. After everything that had happened, Yannis felt that he was right. He began to laugh. He had won.


    Moments later, the intercom once more crackled into life as Sleepy swore. A screech unlike any other rocked through the air. It was as if a thousand thunderbolts had descended upon the ship and the sky was angry. ¡°This is behind us.¡± The young woman said. The fear she was feeling was palpable, and easily audible, even over the foreign screaming. As she spoke, screens of water rose all over the ship. They showed one image, that of a giant storm front approaching the vessel. What scared Sleepy was the giant snake leading the storm, screaming its lungs out at its child now slung across its back and at the ship that dared to injure its spawn.

 Chapter 48: Outrunning The Storm

    Jonas swore. ¡°You idiot Yannis. That was a damn baby maelstrom snake and you had to kill it didn¡¯t you?¡± He punched his first mate in the face. ¡°You had to be the big man and try to take control of the ship didn¡¯t you? Now you¡¯ve got us all killed. Well done.¡± He rubbed his eyes and pried the intercom stone from Yannis¡¯ attached hand. ¡°Sis, is there any way you can increase the speed of the ship?¡±


    Sleepy¡¯s voice crackled throughout the ship. ¡°I can transfer some of the wind batteries to the movement array, but if I do that things may get both loud and hard to breathe. We don¡¯t have that many wind arrays on Rosie.¡± Jonas swore again. He moved to check the rest of the crew members sprawled around the bridge and began moving them towards the side of the room.


    ¡°Laurence, are you going to help me or are you just going to stare at that damn snake all day?¡± The sound of someone saying his name snapped Laurence out of the stupor he was in by seeing the snake. It was the biggest thing Laurence had ever seen, so he was slightly enthralled by it, but he was able to break himself away to start helping. He quickly grabbed three bodies and moved them out of the center of the room, leaving Jonas and Yannis slightly open mouthed at the strength the boy possessed. ¡°Kid, are you a golden child?¡±


    ¡°Yes. I¡¯m one of the golden children of the Absolution clan, a Saint ranked practitioner of the Book.¡±


    Jonas whooped in joy. ¡°The reason why a maelstrom snake is such a terrifying existence to us is that at at the point it reaches adulthood it becomes an extremely powerful pseudodragon saint-beast. If we have a saint with us, then the damage to the ship itself may be large, but we have a chance to survive.¡± Jonas stopped for a moment and began to move the last of the bodies out of the way. ¡°Attention crew.¡± He said, grabbing the intercom stone once more. ¡°I need all hands in the bridge or the engine. We are going to be cutting off the air supply to the rest of the ship, so if you are not in those places you will die. We will also need as many hands as possible to control the ship thanks to Zoo¡¯s dumb decision to shoot at what turns out to be a baby maelstrom snake.


    ¡°You have two minutes to get to either the bridge or the engine. Go!¡±


    Almost immediately the majority of the crew piled into the bridge from just outside, where they had been lurking and watching the events unfold. Now that their lives were in danger they banded together quickly, moved into combat positions and began grabbing for anything they could that would prolong their existences. The ship began speeding up, desperately trying to outpace the approaching wyrm.


    The snake had obviously been watching its child play around, assessing the speed of the vessel in case anything happened that it did not expect. Originally the ship could be caught up with ease by the snake, but when the ship sped up fourfold the beast could not help but scream out in rage. Everyone on the ship could tell that the snake wanted for the ship to pay for what it had done to its spawn, and these screams of rage only hammered in the point more that they had made a huge mistake.


    ¡°Jonas, I have some bad news.¡± Sleepy¡¯s voice crackled into life over the intercom. ¡°I¡¯m pushing the batteries as much as they will go, but I don¡¯t know if they will last until the next major continent at this speed. Rosie was not meant to move this fast, there¡¯s simply too much of her.¡±


    ¡°Just how long do you think she will last?¡±


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe a day? I have Xuchi working out how far away we are from the next continent, but I don¡¯t hold up much hope that we will actually have the batteries to get there.¡± There was a pause, then moments later the intercom crackled into life again. ¡°I just had an idea. Laurence, you said you had several stones that possessed wind elements didn¡¯t you? Please, bring them to the Engine. The more you have, the more likely it will be for us to be able to get out of this alive.¡±


    Before even being ordered to do so Laurence moved out of the bridge and sprinted back towards where Sleepy was situated, inside the engine of the vessel. He pulled a small stone out of his bag of holding and stuffed it in his mouth before leaving the room. The stone was a soft yellow colour, one that people did not recognise, but since he had revealed himself as a Golden Child they had no doubt it was simply a peerless treasure. The moment Laurence left the floor of the bridge the stone in his mouth began working, supplementing him with a supply of non-dangerous air. The air itself was not too dangerous to the layman, but with the filtration and restoration systems in the ship turned off it quickly returned to its very low natural density. A density far lower than normal people could deal with. Laurence would have been fine, but he realised that the people on the ship would want him to fight the wyrm following them so he attempted to keep himself in the best condition he could. It was for this reason he took out a stone of air and used it as a simple air production and filtration system of his own.


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    He took the stone out the moment he entered the engine room, and saw the flashing lights and straining arrays, as they battled to keep the ship faster than the beast it was being chased by. Many of the batteries that had been brightly suffused with energy mere minutes before he had left were now dimming at an uncomfortably fast rate. It was distressing to watch them go down, and he began to realise that Sleepy¡¯s prediction of a day was a very optimistic one, and would possibly cost the lives of everyone on the ship to pull off.


    He saw Sleepy in the middle of the room, mana paths wrapped around her in abandon as she rewired things at break-neck speed. On the far side of the room was the navigator, Xuchi, staring into one of the water screens intently. He looked up at Laurence as he arrived and gave a wan smile. Things were not looking good, and the ominous shaking that had just begun did not make things seem better.


    ¡°Sleepy, I think I know how long we have until we get to the next island.¡± He said, pausing in dread. ¡°I think we have three days at this speed, but I don¡¯t know if the ship can even last that long at this speed. It wasn¡¯t built for it.¡±


    ¡°I know, Xuchi.¡± The distressed engineer growled at her friend. ¡°We have to do something though, I can¡¯t just die like this. I refuse to!¡±


    ¡°Will these help?¡± Said Laurence, throwing her a small bag. Inside the bag were thirty tornadrite gems, each one the size and shape of a small grape but brimming with vibrant windy energy. Each one was like a storm trapped in a bead, bursting to get out.


    When Sleepy saw the stones she nearly dropped everything, which would have killed them all, undoubtedly. Instead she screamed with joy, managed to get hold of herself and begin quickly swapping out the dead batteries that surrounded her feet, reattaching the stones to all the separate arrays that they were to become key parts of. The batteries before could be barely considered Earth classed items, but with Laurence¡¯s reshaping the tornadrite was as close to Saint tier as could be without actually crossing over the boundary.


    The ship ceased the shuddering it had just begun doing, but the effect was noticeable. Even when they had been travelling safely the ship would shudder slightly from the power draw, but now it was so smooth that there was near to no turbulence whatsoever. It showed a drastic difference in the quality of the batteries used. With just those twenty new batteries, all the element lacking arrays and wind based arrays were reignited with a fervour that was positively electric.


    The crew collectively breathed a sigh of relief when Sleepy said they would be able to get to the island in less than a day thanks to the new batteries. A lot of them began laughing at their collective terror from the state the engine was in, but the laughter soon stopped. They were not out of the woods yet.


    When the maelstrom snake saw the ship pick up speed once again it could not help but scream out again. Its wild wrathful cries spread out and stunned the crew of Rosie¡¯s Demise into sobriety. They were definitely not out of the woods just yet. As the ship sped up so did the wyrm, the cat and mouse chase that had been happening for over a week going from dangerous to deadly proportions. The crew of Rosie were riding a giant bullet, and if they hit anything big enough to stop them then it would become very difficult to tell where the ship ended and the crew started.


    Jonas¡¯ voice crackled into being as the beast approached, ¡°Laurence, I am so sorry that we have to burden you with this as well, but would you be able to defend the ship from the snake until we can get to land? If we can get to land then perhaps we will be safe.¡±


    ¡°Can you do it, for a whole day?¡± Said Sleepy, her brow furrowed with worry. ¡°I mean, I know you must be from a big family, especially seeing as you just gave us twenty batteries of incredible power, but I don¡¯t actually know how strong you are.¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s okay Sleepy. I¡¯m what you call a Saint, a golden child of the Absolution clan, and Yun is as strong as me.¡± Sleepy could not help but widen her eyes in astonishment. Finding out that a child was a Saint was incredibly rare, but not unheard of. Finding out there were two on the ship at once was mind blowing to the woman. She just stood watching her young friend leave the engine like a deer in headlights before slumping on the floor out of a combination shock and stress.


    Shakily she turned her head to look at Xuchi and said ¡°You know what, Xu? I think we will be alright.¡±

 Chapter 49: Moment In Flight

    Brother, I need you. Laurence sent to Yun as he left the engine. He had no confidence that he could fight against the giant snake on his own, but with Yun and Louisa there he was almost certain of his victory.


    Brother. He heard in response. Mate and I follow. Direct us. It had taken months for Laurence to get used to the mental communication that Yun had gifted him, but now they could talk together no matter how far away from each other they were.


    He had originally thought it was to do with the tattoos that had bound the two of them, but Yun thought otherwise. The wolf-boy had a certain amount of innate knowledge, things that would be considered instinctual if they were simpler, and he knew from his birth that there was a certain kind of bond that could be formed between two people. It gave Yun an increase in potential and the ability to speak the human language of the tower, while Laurence it gave increased mana and the ability to converse like a tigerwolf.


    Outside. We hunt snake. His grasp on the grammar of the wolf was lacking to say the least, but the speed that he was picking it up was faster than he expected. The language itself was one of experiences and imagery, less structured words and more impulses through sense data. It meant that each sentence was beautiful and clear but retaining knowledge in the language was nigh on impossible.


    Walking up each step to the roof of the ship, Laurence could not help but begin to get excited. The rush of adrenaline, the fear, the excitement, it all bubbled up to a point in him then stopped. It was a fever pitch that never quite broke the surface. There was something in him that seemed to cut him off from the world when he got too excited about combat. He had seen it time and time again in himself since that fight with the orik on the first floor, but it was not something he could stop. In the end he had begun to become numb to the sensation of the cut off. It no longer worried him or confused him, he was numb to that too.


    Each step he took towards the coming battle allowed him to transform from the inquisitive child he was normally into the heartless killer he became out of necessity. The switch over always seemed quick to the people around Laurence, but it always felt like an age to him. His pulse slowed down and the adrenaline ceased rushing. Colours became muted and almost greyed out entirely to the boy. His emotions began to quieten until they were basically nothing more than widowers in the wind. He was one with his self preservation instinct, his sight was clear and sharp but uncluttered. He was ready for war.


    He took the last step out into the daylight and emerged from his transformation with his small smile that never quite reached the eyes. The wind whipped by and pressed his long hair forwards as he looked at the wyrm riding the air currents behind the ship. It was far larger than he thought, simply dwarfing the ship Laurence stood on. From end to end it was about five times the size of its child, coloured pitch black and sheathed in blue lightning.


    When the maelstrom snake saw Laurence come out of the ship, it could not help but let out a bellowing, guttural laugh. It sounded like sheet metal being pushed through a wood chipper and was so loud that even Sleepy and Xuchi in the engine could hear it unaided. It could not help but let out the sound, seeing the man-child come out as if to fight it.


    When it saw another boy and a girl come out and stand beside the first boy it felt a strange sense of impending danger. Somewhere in the deep recesses of the wyrm¡¯s mind there was a memory of a memory, something likely inherited, that warned against harming or fighting children that gave off the aura that those did. There was something truly uncanny about the children, but it was not enough to deter the snake. They had hurt its child, and now had to pay.


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    The beast sped up once more, nearing the ship. It intended to finish this in one swift action, ramming through the ship itself. If the ship was destroyed then unless the children could fly out defy gravity they would fall to their deaths. It would be hit by debris but that was inconsequential. They had to pay.


    The three Saints watched as the beast edged closer and closer. Its maximum speed was not much faster than the ship was going, but it was faster. They only had a minute to prepare before the wyrm was upon them, but their preparations only took seconds. Yun called out to his needle, Onyx, and immediately grew it into the length of a sword while Louisa bergen shrinking and growing wings. By the time she was finished she was barely bigger than Yun¡¯s palm and hovered above the wolf-boy''s head, her foot long gauze wings flickering just faster than the human eye could catch. They were a mismatched little group but still managed to produce an unimaginable pressure and sense of danger towards the snake.


    The snake screamed once more and dove towards the children, sending multiple sonic booms in its wake. It moved uninhibited until Laurence raised his left hand and let out a flash of light. Inklight span out of his hand and sped towards the beast, the rope of light undulating like a serpent towards the snake. Within an instant inklight had reached its target and pierced into the maelstrom snake¡¯s eye. It was the one spot that Laurence could see which was not covered by the creature''s thick scales, so he naturally aimed for it. Even if the creature blinked he assumed that the beam of light could just about puncture the skin. The wyrm writhed at the sharp pain coming from the beam of light that had struck its eye. It writhed in pain at the feeling of the incision into its eye and nearly threw the smaller snake off its back in the process.


    The snake let out a deafening high pitched screech before trying to pull the rope of solid light out of its eye but inklight would not budge. Even when Laurence covered his ears from the cry of pain from the snake the tension did not lessen. The rope was stuck fast.


    The boy took a chance and tried to pull the snake in by its eye. He heaved and pulled but to no avail. The combination of the weight of the eye and the different speeds that the ship and snake were moving at made actually pulling the snake closer nigh on impossible. To add insult to injury, the snake had closed its eyelid and was gripping on to it for dear life. It could not bear either option it had been dealt, but in its pain addled state saw an opportunity. It pulled as Laurence pulled and with its monstrous strength, the boy was pulled into the air.


    Laurence felt his body suddenly leave the ground of the ship and arc into the air. He gasped in shock as the ship quickly moved away from him. For a moment there was nothing but space below the boy. Thousands and thousands of miles of yellow stretched from and to either end of the horizon. The only colours other than the yellow of the sand was the soft blue of the sky and the deep purple-black that made up the snake''s storm.


    As the ship sped further away, Laurence shook himself from his stupor. The void descended once more and he finally saw a single way out. He severed the flow of mana to the beam of inklight pulling him away and fired off a second tendril. The ship was fast, but inklight was faster. It hooked round the railing that stood normally stopping people from doing what Laurence just did, and the boy began pulling himself out of the abyss.


    Laurence was not out of the woods that quickly, however. In the second and a half that Laurence had been off the ship it had travelled almost four hundred meters away from him, which meant he had to climb that in high winds to get back to safety.


    Just behind him the snake raged and roiled. It was in pain, worried about its child and angry at the ship before it, so brazen as to harm the great beast and yet still able to survive after doing so. In the end it screamed out and tried to eat Laurence. If it could not quite get the ship, it would take the life of the child that managed to injure it. It dove towards the boy and opened its mouth, bearing a deep red tongue and lightning sheathed teeth to the world.

 Chapter 50: The Second Gift

    When Yun saw Laurence in danger of being eaten he could not help but roar out in rage. Brother! He sent through the sky, Brother, behind you! Laurence looked behind him, but there was very little he could do to avoid the beast. It loomed as it reached him and swamped him in shadow. The lightning crackled and saliva dripped by him, singing his flesh and hair. The stench of ozone was everywhere.


    Yun roared in rage as he saw the one member of family he actually knew in peril of being eaten. He could not accept it. He would not accept it. He cried out and threw his needle sword at the beast, watching it change in size and shape until it was more of a javelin than a sword. It flew through the sky, and with a little help from the momentum of the ship and the snake, it quickly reached the target.


    The snake screamed again as it was injured once more. The javelin pierced through the thick scales and into the pulpy, sensitive material that made up the snake''s nose. The snake writhed as the javelin turned to dust and returned back into Yun¡¯s hands. He looked at the weapon in shock and then threw it out again, aiming for the underbelly of the wyrm this time. It pierced flesh once more and the snake writhed more.


    The snake undulated so much that it bucked its child straight into the abyss below. It screamed out and dipped its head then saw the baby maelstrom snake fall to the desolate ground below. It screamed again and dove towards its spawn, ignoring the pain of its eye, nose and belly. Reaching the child before it hit the floor, the snake arced back up into the sky and could only watch bitterly as the ship dashed away into the distance.


    Laurence groped his way back to the vessel, each pull taking far more effort than he expected. He realised that although inklight did not consume much of his mana, the consumption rate was starting to take a toll on him. It was distressing, but his mana would run out before he reached the ship with the way he was going. Taking a moment to think about his options he decided that the best way back was to shorten the rope that connected him to the ship. It was a devilishly simple answer to the problem in front of him. He split the rope of light into two strands and wrapped them round the railing and forced them to act like a conveyor belt. Within moments he had arrived back at the ship, safe and sound.


    Once he got his bearings he sat down and began laughing uproariously at the situation he had been in. He had been on a knife edge and managed to survive, even though his null state had broken mid-combat. If it had been a fight of equivalent power, then it would have likely cost him his life, and almost did. Yet he also learned what it felt like to fly and could not get over how good it felt.


    After Yun and Louisa managed to stop Laurence laughing and he had restored some of his heavily depleted mana reservoir they moved downstairs and begun helping clean up. There was mess everywhere, shattered tables and broken ornaments. Glass was strewn across parts of the floor and had managed to get embedded in some of the walls in the back of the ship. It was like a bomb site.


    The moment the snake had left the vicinity of the ship Jonas issued the order for the mutineers to be thrown off the bridge and into the hold. He intended that they would stay there until they got back to civilised land. In the end six men and women, including Yannis, were imprisoned. Three of Yannis¡¯ supporters were able to avoid imprisonment and potential keelhauling because of the fact that they did not take part. It would have been over before Laurence and Sleepy could do anything if they had taken part, but because they did not there was only one death and nine injuries.


    The clean up process began once the vessel and the prisoners were secure. The only place in the ship that was not strewn with debris from the turbulence was the living quarters of the ship. By captain¡¯s rule everything was packed securely away before starting a shift for running the ship. It was something that most of the crew found annoying, but now they saw the value in it. The place most damaged was the kitchen. Even when everything had been put away, the cupboards had not been secured and the cutlery, crockery and food had ended up strewn everywhere. Some of the more brittle bowls had shattered and there were shards covering and pricking everything in sight. Jonas just sighed at the sight of broken pots and spoiled food. It was not an entirely new occurrence for the crew to have to clean up shattered things, but the scale was completely different to what they were usually used to.


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    As the cleaning process progressed, Laurence and Yun were the most valued people nearby. Things seemed to fix themselves around the two boys, so where they walked debris would clear and the surroundings of the ship would repair faster than if they had just let the repairing array on the ship fix the vessel. The boys were both praised wherever they were seen in the ship. Everyone had seen the battle that took place on the screens of water that projected images of the snake. It was nail bitingly tense and incredibly short, but the entire thing left a massive impression on the crew. Two children had scared off a beast hundreds of times larger than themself. They put the rest of the crew to shame with their strength and bravery.


    The cleanup itself took around five hours to return everything back into the shape it was before the mutiny occurred. In the end the only real damage that had been inflicted upon the crew was that they had lost a lot of food and that around a third of the crew was incarcerated, with a quarter of the rest of the crew bed-ridden. They were stretched thin, but the crew could cope. Of the twenty people, there only actually needed to be three people running the ship, a pilot, a navigator and an engineer or arrayist. While they were lacking ten people, the crew had to cycle the necessary roles round fewer crew members which meant longer standing shifts and less time off for everyone.


    Laurence went to see Sleepy after he finished cleaning up the bridge. If everything went to plan then they would be leaving the floor in less than twenty hours and they still had things to discuss. From the moment he left the bridge to the moment before he arrived at the engine the boy debated over giving his friend a copy of the Book of Creation. It was a tough call, because it would have to be kept secret else Sleepy would fall into a similar predicament to the one that Jonas had posited. People would pay good money to control someone who could craft, and almost anyone could be persuaded with enough money. In the end he just decided to walk in and let Sleepy decide for herself if she wanted to learn from the Book.


    ¡°I can¡¯t exactly stop looking over this, can I?¡± She said when Laurence walked through the door. ¡°I have to check the arrays every few hours after a new battery has been implanted to make sure that everything is running smoothly. I can¡¯t simply ¡®take a break¡¯ like you suggested.¡± She stopped berating Xuchi and turned round to look at who had entered the engine as she was talking. ¡°Oh hi Laurence.¡±


    ¡°Fine,¡± Xuchi said, ¡°I¡¯ll let you work. But the moment you get a chance, you rest. Okay? An engineer who is comatose from sleep is a bigger problem than a little turbulence for the next few hours.¡± Tugging his bandanna, he walked over to the door and walked out, shaking hands with Laurence on his way out.


    ¡°So what did you come see me for?¡± Said Sleepy.


    ¡°I have two things I came to talk to you about. First, I¡¯m going to be leaving the ship, and this floor of Babel in less than a day and was kind of getting in an early goodbye. We are likely not going to see each other again for a long time, but you¡¯re my friend, so I wanted to make sure you knew you were valued.¡± He paused and opened his bag of holding. ¡°Second. I wanted to give you this.¡±


    In his hands was a slim, red leather bound book with a sigil in the shape of Laurence¡¯s hammer on the front. It had embossed leather patterns all over it, but the two most prominent symbols were the glyphic runes for ¡®Creation¡¯ and ¡®Book¡¯.

 Chapter 51: Return

    Sleepy looked at the book curiously. It was not that she did not trust things Laurence gave her, but this was something special. She could feel it from the aura that the book exuded. It expressed a power that was well beyond what she could really appreciate, but she understood that it had not only a strong aura but also some semblance of a personality. The book intrigued Sleepy, but it also scared her.


    She hesitated for a moment, then reached out and took hold of the book, peeling open the first page to reveal a detailed map of the ship, and its surroundings. Each word was penned in with her own chicken-scratch handwriting. It was surreal to see something that she recognised as her own, but she had never seen before. She turned the page and was presented with the words The Book of Creation - Martial Manifestation of Immortal Cultivation Through Creativity and The Arts. It was an imposing title, but one that made Sleepy nothing less than completely stunned by it.


    Her hands shook as she grasped the Book for dear life. It was without a doubt the most valuable item she had ever seen and she had just been gifted it by a child. She tore her eyes away from the book and stared at Laurence like a deer in headlights. She was not sure whether to cry and thank him or to run as far away as she could. It was not what she was expecting.


    ¡°Is... Is this why you''re so strong?¡± She said, gripping the Book in fear that it might run away. Sleepy knew that in theory anyone could cultivate towards immortality, because there was no single true way to reach the ultimate. The reality was that cultivation was infinitely hard without some sort of guide, be it a cultivation manual like she had been given or a master like Yun with Louisa. Wars had been fought over the chance to read a single page of one of these books and families were torn apart by them. That was the simple allure of immortality.


    ¡°It¡¯s why I know anything other than the basics of how to fight and medicine. Almost everything I know was picked up from this book. I guess that in a way, this book is me.¡± Laurence frowned. He could feel he was on the edge of something profound with his last statement, but he could not work out what. In the end he could only sigh as the sensation of epiphany left him. ¡°Either way, this book wanted to be with you, so here you have it. With your talent in arrays you should become strong quickly.¡±


    Sleepy clutched the book to her chest the moment that she heard it would help with arrays. She had two passions in life, and becoming a master of arrays was one of them. Unfortunately master arrayists would often misteach or misdirect students who were not the student who would gain their inheritance. Arrays were an incredibly cut throat region of employment, and they had only become more so since the loss of the Book of Creation from the tower. She simply could not imagine what else the book that she was holding contained.


    ¡°I can monitor the arrays while you read the book if you like.¡± Said Laurence. His female friends nodded mutely. Her eyes still the size of saucers. ¡°Be warned, don''t try and read the book all at once. You''ll become a Saint when you finish your first reading, but you will starve to death long before that point if you don''t stop.¡±


    Sleepy nodded, her heart in her throat. It was one thing for Laurence to give her something to save his life as well as the lives of all others on the vessel, but giving Sleepy something so valuable seemed completely unprecedented to her. In the end Laurence took over with monitoring and the girl sank to the floor. She sat there reading the book for seventeen hours. Not once did she look up or break her concentration, just every so often Laurence would hear the sounds of a page turning amidst the pulsating bell-song of the arrays.


    In the end it was Laurence who snapped her out of her reverie. The navigator made the hour call to land, and so Laurence¡¯s time was coming to an end with the ship. Before he left he wanted to talk to her about what she had seen in the Book. It was always a joy for Laurence to discuss the forms of creativity that the book allowed one to use, but he had only actually had a chance to do this with Yun and Damascus. Sleepy was a new mind and a new take on the way of creation. Laurence smiled as he looked at the new initiate into the study of the Book.


    ¡°So, how was it?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s incredible!¡± Replied Sleepy, breathlessly. ¡°I read about the basic forms of carving and array creation. Is it true that the act of creation is just hyper complicated array work?¡±


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    ¡°Yeah. When you reach the later stages of the Book you will gain something called truesight. With truesight you can see infinitesimally small glyphs that make up the language of creation within any major artifact formed by us.¡±


    ¡°Wow. I can''t thank you enough.¡± Sleepy paused, the cogs in her head whirring quickly. ¡°I have to ask, why me?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know. The Book itself chose you, so it must think you have potential to become an immortal. I think you do, so I will wait for you to catch up to me.¡± Laurence grinned and Sleepy smacked him ineffectually at the jibe. She knew that Laurence really was a lot stronger than her. He may not be as worldly, but his travels would soon make him more so.


    They chatted about the way of Creation for the next hour, when the voice of a very worried navigator crackled into life on the intercom. ¡°Guys we''ve just reached land, but there are two entities coming up on us at great speed. I think the snake might be back.¡±


    The intercom cut out and Sleepy swore. She quickly ran over to the arrays and made sure that they were all in order before activating the speech array and talking over the intercom. ¡°Jonas, the engine is in order, but we can''t go any faster. It has been on max all day. We can''t outrun the snake anymore.¡±


    ¡°What did that word mean?¡± Laurence interjected.


    ¡°What?¡±


    Laurence swore. Sleepy could not help but look up at her young friend when he spoke. It was slightly awkward hearing swear words come out of the mouth of a child who; despite the fact that she knew he had both maimed and killed more people than she likely would in her entire life, she still considered an innocent.


    She chuckled away at Laurence and then finally said, ¡°It is a crude word for making a child.¡±


    ¡°I didn''t know that there was a word for the process of making life.¡± Replied Laurence, ¡°I haven¡¯t come across that in the Book of Creation, at least as far as I know.¡±


    She burst out laughing. The boy always managed to confuse her, sometimes coming across far beyond his age in the way he spoke and treated people, but sometimes lacking the most basic pieces of information that she knew at his age. He really was an innocent.


    Before they could talk further the intercom crackled into life again. ¡°Incoming!¡± The navigator yelled. ¡°All hands brace for impact!¡± People all over the ship rushed to their nearest hand hold and tied themselves down in as many ways as possible. They had all seen the way the ship had rattled when the control of the ship was switched repeatedly and no one wanted to become a slab of meat filled with glass.


    The crew collectively held their breath as they waited for the worst to happen, then finally they heard the telltale metallic screech that managed to set their bones on edge and minds spinning in fear. The maelstrom snake was back. They could feel the rumbling of thunder travel through their bodies, despite the powerful shields that Sleepy had put in between them and the world outside. Lightning flashed through the sky, blinding the crew who could see outside. Their hair stood on end at the fearsome power the creature displayed. It seemed far more angry now than it had been before.


    After around thirty seconds of cacophonous noise all the sounds died down. It was quiet, even pleasant in comparison to what they dealt with before. The crew let out a collective sigh of relief. It was over.


    Then something hit the ship. There was a cracking and a crashing sound as the snake¡¯s fearsome body smashed into Rosie¡¯s Demise and knocked it into the ground. The arrays in the engine flickered like mad as they tried to cope with the damage and sudden change in direction. The ship sped towards the ground, but the pilot managed to regain some semblance of control before they struck. The bottom of the vessel sheared off and began to immolate, leaving a massive trail of debris and charred earth in its wake. They hoped it was over, but the snake was just beginning.

 Chapter 52: Rosie鈥檚 Demise

    The sound of splintering wood and tearing metal ripped through Rosie as the ship grated itself on the ground. It slid for almost a kilometre before slowly shuddering to a stop. The nose of the airship had been completely ruined by its landing, but the shields has reduced the brunt of the damage. On the left side of the ship¡¯s tail there was a huge dent that spanned the entire upper end. It was as wide as ten men and very deep, even through the shields.


    The ship sat there, shields desperately flickering as they tried to keep the vessel protected, but it was of no use. Rosie was dying. As the crew began their mad exodus from danger the ship cried and squealed in its death throes. Even the engine, Rosie¡¯s heart, was in a state of disrepair. Dozens of the arrays had shattered trying to keep up with the demand for power, and dozens more had broken because of the excess power in the area thanks to the other broken arrays.


    Laurence looked on at the mess made by the snake, and by extension Zoo, with muted emotions. He could feel something bubbling up inside him by could not name it. I liked Rosie he thought as he watched array after array snap and burst into motes of light. I really liked this ship. The feeling was simmering away as the boy began moving out of the vessel with a very disorientated engineer over his shoulders.


    ¡°I liked everyone on this ship. I learned a lot from all the crew and from Jonas and Sleepy. I learned a lot from Rosie.¡± He said to himself. His voice was quiet, barely audible to Sleepy who was regaining her senses. It made her shudder. This was not the normal inquisitive child she had come to be firm friends with over the time they had been travelling. This was something else and it scared her.


    He got outside and put Sleepy down next to where her brother and Louisa were standing. The crew was coming out in dribs and drabs, but it was hard to watch. They were stranded without the ship and the snake was ominously flying towards them. If the snake got to them it was a death sentence, but they knew that there was nowhere to run. The island had a forest in the distance, but the pain stretched for miles in all directions.


    ¡°I liked Rosie.¡± Laurence said again, the feeling reaching a fever pitch. It was close to bursting and there was no sign of the void that usually descended, no blissful nothing that hid him from the rush of adrenaline and the madly rippling emotions he would have had to deal with.


    Suddenly there was a voice echoing in Laurence¡¯s ear. Well why don''t you just kill the snake then? You could learn a lot from its corpse. The voice came from very close by to Laurence but sounded completely different to anyone he had met recently. He looked around for a moment and could not place it, but the voice had a point. Kill it. The voice repeated. There was a strange resonance to the voice that made it seem slightly ethereal, almost unreal.


    He would have questioned the voice more, but he was being overwhelmed by emotion. It fizzed and frothed just below the surface, building up pressure and begging to pop. ¡°I liked...¡± He breathed in. Kill it he heard again. ¡°Rosie!¡± Anger, rage, wrath and hatred burst from within him. There were such potent energies bursting from within him as he screamed the name of the ship that the people around him had to take a step back. The Saintly mana within him burst out and undulated around him rapidly, flicking about dirt and crushing the grass beneath him.


    Laurence snarled as blood vessels in his eyes burst and dyed his vision scarlet. He was so angry. He could not hold back any more. Kill it he heard again. Whatever was telling him to kill was something he could no longer resist. He let the rage consume him and summoned Jormugand. The hammer lit up the sky with the torrents of fire as Laurence charged towards the maelstrom snake. He would not think, could not think. Instead all he could do was kill the beast.


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    He sprinted towards the wyrm, mana pumping through his leg muscles. Each step forced up clouds of soil and grass, coating everyone and thing behind him in a fine mist of dirt and pebbles. A light blue mist exited his mouth and nose as he ran. There was so much mana flowing through his blood and muscles that even his breath was laced with it.


    Within moments he had reached the halfway point between the crew and the snake. The sky crackled and tore as the snake swooped down to snatch the young boy up in its jaws, but even bathed in rage as Laurence was he knew how to defend himself. He swung his hammer back and retreated as the wyrm¡¯s head neared, letting the beast¡¯s nose slide past his face by inches. As the snake¡¯s nose touched the ground Laurence flicked his bladed hammer forwards and felt a pull of mana from his weapon. As mana reinforced his hammer, the size of the weapon increased until the flat of the hammer itself was over a meter in diameter.


    The hammerhead collided with the snake and the scales of the beast simply shattered, charred and turned to ash. The boy was flung back by the ricochet force, but he twisted in midair and slammed the hammer into the side of the snake¡¯s head again. Once more the hammerhead bounced off the snake and Laurence used the force to make another strike. He bounced and struck again and again with the oversized hammer he wielded, each strike cracking and charring the snake¡¯s skin. Within the three seconds that the snake had attacked and pulled its head back Laurence had struck it six times, and he still had power to continue.


    The maelstrom snake moved its head up like a cobra, ready to strike once more as laurence stood below it, like an ant. This ant, however, had caused it immeasurable pain, and had left six large black welts on its soft underflesh. The snake cried out, putting all its power from the scream of pain, fear and anger into it. With this scream the air visibly warped and bulged away from the wyrm. This attack held all its immaterial strength and even the feral Laurence shied away from it. The cone of pure sonic force ripped through the ground and sky, tearing apart everything it touched like a hurricane made of razorblades. It churned the earth and sky, cut through the tough rock below the surface of the island like butter, and left a crater around Laurence akin to that of a meteorite. The ground was torn up for thirty meters in every direction around the boy, but he still stood, right in the middle of the hole.


    His leather clothing was covered in lacerations and blood was steadily seeping from each wound, but still he stood, fuming at the beast. He pulled up the hood that he barely used on his tunic and that awful grin appeared on his face. Grin, red eyes and horned hood combined the boy looked less like a child soldier and more like a demon incarnate. Even the great wyrm that owned the skies of the fifth floor was intimidated, so in response electricity began collecting around and inside its mouth, the buildup much slower than before. It stood tall and proud, even in battle it was the regent of this region, normally the undisputed god of the world it was in and it held itself so. However tonight it was fighting the devil incarnate.


    KILL! Laurence heard once more. It was all he could hear at this point. KILL! KILL! KILL! He was still so angry with the beast, but his body was reaching its tipping point. He was pushing it as far as he could go, and within all of the eight seconds he had fought the beast he had pushed himself to the utmost limit. He screamed out, it was a primal scream in response to the snake¡¯s cry, but one that held as much emotional impact, even if it was lacking in the power that the former had possessed.


    He began running towards the snake once more and let out another guttural roar, from deep within his body and heart. Pushing off from the ground he flew into the air, quickly reaching eye level with the snake. The lightning crackling around the beast had reached the point of terrifying, but still Laurence faced the danger with reckless abandon and swing his hammer. As he swung he heard snapping sounds like a thousand rubber bands being stretched and broken all at once. It made him feel hundreds of times stronger for that single moment of striking before making him feel as weak as a baby. The hammer fell and caved in the beast¡¯s jaw, trapping the lightning that it was preparing to spit at him shuddered through its sensitive innards. The electricity was so powerful that the beast could not even scream. It simply jerked around as the charge ran through its body, and a scent of cooked meat slowly began to suffuse the area.


    Laurence fell from his leap and hit the ground. His body indented into the earth. Since he took that final swing his emotions had eased up and the blood lust had dissipated from him. The voice had stopped talking to him and he felt relaxed with the situation. He closed his eyes and began laughing, wincing every so often as he realised he was covered from head to toe in wounds and his own blood.

 Chapter 53: Maelstrom

    When the snake¡¯s fresh carcass hit the floor a cloud of mud burst into the sky. The ground around the boy and beast was churned up and torn apart by the energy and impacts of the strikes. Rivulets of rock and debris stood around the battlefield, marking the island in ways that would last long after the crew of Rosie¡¯s Demise left.


    Yun, Louisa, Jonas and Sleepy all ran towards Laurence once the dust settled. In their eyes the boy was crazy, and they wondered if he had actually survived. If he had actually been touched by the lightning that had charred the beast from the inside then he would have not survived, but simply falling from a height of around forty meters could still kill the boy.


    When they reached Laurence all of them, bar Yun, gasped out in shock. Laurence¡¯s body was a mess. There were cuts and bruises covering his body, several bones sticking out from his flesh and even some of his muscles were warped and twisted in the wrong shape. Even his hair and uncut flesh was singed and blackened. He was a mess of wounds and seriously needed medical attention if he was not dead already.


    While the others were standing in shock, Yun lent down and checked for a pulse on his brother. After what felt like an hour he found a weak one. Carefully he touched Laurence¡¯s chest and began injecting strip after strip of mana into his body, forcing it to activate his lungs and the inner flame formation within him. Beads of sweat dripped down his forehead as he worked away at restarting Laurence¡¯s shattered mana paths.


    With each pass of Yun¡¯s mana, each cell of the pathways began to strengthen beyond belief. The cells gleamed with vibrance and life in a way they had never done before. Their near destruction had enabled a healing process that made them tens of times tougher than they were before. They were healing themselves and making Laurence stronger to boot. Unfortunately this did not help much with the physical wounds that covered Laurence¡¯s body. He needed mana to regenerate his body quicker, but it would not correct all his body parts that had been shunted out of place.


    As it stood Laurence would be hideously deformed if healed in the state that he was currently in, so Yun took the only steps he knew to fix it. He physically straightened and corrected all of Laurence¡¯s bones and muscles himself, stringing them together with bands of mana mere millimetres thick. With each correction the young boy screamed out in pain. He was not conscious, but every time something was reset he woke, screamed and then fell into oblivion again.


    With minute long breaks and a large amount of the Malmas Tincture that Laurence had concocted through their journey Yun managed to dull the pain to the point where it did not stop Laurence¡¯s heart. It took him over an hour to fix everything but by the time he was done the young boy¡¯s body was repaired as well as it could be. It was simply up to the reborn mana paths to rejuvenate him now.


    Laurence spent the next week recuperating in an effective coma as the crew worked out how to get the ship in usable shape. Almost all the crew had survived, but of the mutineers only Yannis and one other were left alive. Even then they were both heavily injured.


    The crew set up camp just outside of the ship and both Sleepy and Yun began setting up array after array to fix the ship up. Both lamented the fact that Laurence was too injured to help them, for while Yun excelled with flexibility and dexterity Laurence was capable of outputting far more raw power in all aspects of cultivation. Like their spirits Yun was the sewing needle while Laurence was the warhammer. If Laurence had taken part in the restoration of the ship they would have simply speed up by almost five times the speed. Instead the chassis of the ship was half complete when Laurence finally rose from his slumber.


    He woke to the rising sun. With his full body covered in bandages he momentarily found it difficult to move, but only because his reservoir was nearly empty. Closing his eyes he assessed his body, and to his surprise there was very little wrong with it. In fact his mana reservoir had doubled in size and there was now a small steam of mana pumping through his body and tempering it constantly. Each time the stream of mana passed over a section of Laurence¡¯s body it would pause and infuse every individual cell with mana until it was packed bursting with energy and raw power.


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    What was happening to his body was the instructions that Tony had told to the new challengers the day Laurence first entered the tower. He had wondered why Tony had lied then, and still he did not know, but he now realised that Tony was telling the truth about infusing the body with mana to make it much stronger. Laurence quickly took off the bandages covering him and gazed at his skin. It was still the almost apricot brown that he had been born with, but now it was as soft and smooth as silk, and many times more durable.


    He continued his introspection, scoring his body for any more changes when he noticed something concerning about Jormugand. There was an almost imperceptibly thin fracture going down the middle of his hammer. It was small, but still worrying. His weapon was his soul solidified, so if that broke then he had no doubt that something bad would happen. He simply did not know what. Until the matter of the crack was solved he decided it prudent that he avoid using the hammer. This left him with a predicament, however. Without his hammer he had no weapon to enter combat with, and while he knew he could swing his fists at anyone he needed to fight he also knew that it would be nowhere near as effective as his hammer had been. He needed a spare weapon.


    Getting out of the bed he was in he exited the shack he had been sleeping in and entered the camp for the first time. It was a roughshod affair, with shacks and tents hastily erected to cover the crew and their tools from the elements. The entire camp was set up in a semicircle around a fire pit that had some meat slowly roasting over it. The heady stench of cooked meat made Laurence¡¯s stomach growl furiously to remind him that it had been days since he last ate anything, so he walked over to the pit and began devouring as much food as he could.


    As he ate, he heard a gasp behind him. He turned and saw Jonas and Sleepy standing, staring at him wide eyed, and open mouthed. To them he looked like a dead man walking, because to them he really was. Jonas recovered first and walked over, grabbed a knife and cut off a small chunk of the haunch that was currently being decimated by Laurence.


    ¡°Hell kiddo, remember to breathe between carcases.¡± He sat down next to the boy and began chewing on the hot strip of meat. Laurence in return simply grinned with a mouth full of snake flesh. ¡°So how are you? You''ve been dead to the world for a week, and very nearly dead to the world permanently.¡±


    Laurence swallowed his food and then spoke. ¡°I''m fine, better than fine in fact. I think the whole situation may have actually made me stronger. What have I missed?¡±


    ¡°Well, we are rebuilding Rosie and I am thinking of renaming her to ¡®Rosie¡¯s Revenge¡¯, we''re also building this camp into a port town controlled by the crew. With Dunwu¡¯s help we should be able to set up an array to attach this part of the island to the slipstream. No one goes this way much, but I reckon we could make a pretty penny offering transport to challengers like you.¡± Jonas took another bite of the meat on his knife, chewing quickly and then swallowing. ¡°Yun is out scouting the area but he said to give you this if you wake up.¡±


    Jonas threw Laurence a pouch, very similar to his own bag of holding but smaller and made of snakeskin. Opening the bag to look inside he saw a massive pocket dimension, filled mostly with the skin, bone and fangs of the maelstrom snake. Laurence smiled and began using his truesight upon the bag an saw that the entire thing was littered with intricate and minuscule arrays. Each array was layered or connected to another array, bolstering everyone they touched. It was a masterpiece, one that Laurence had yet to match, and seeing his brother work so hard to make something got Laurence fired up to make his own creation.


    ¡°We want to use the skull of the snake as the centrepiece of the town. We''re calling the place Maelstrom, after the skull. I hope you don''t mind.¡±


    ¡°Of course not.¡± Laurence replied. ¡°As long as you don''t mind taking me and my friends the rest of the way for free once the town is set up.¡±

 Chapter 54: The City of Spirit

    The next couple of months passed by uneventfully for the settlement. Laurence, Yun and Louisa stayed while the town was being built so the crew of Rosie would not have to worry about being indebted to anyone before their new home was built. Yun had said it was the least they could do for letting Laurence recuperate.


    Laurence agreed to stay but for reasons entirely of his own. The day after he woke up he shut himself in his room for two more days. He declared he was working on a couple of things, but no one, not even Yun, knew what. On the fourth day after Laurence woke up from his coma he revealed himself with a host of drawings on paper and a small white ring. He gathered the crew together and said to them, ¡°For the last few days I have been thinking about something, a way to protect you guys from harm. Last night I had two ideas for some giant arrays, but I will need everyone''s help to get it made.¡± Placing the stack of paper in the middle of the crowd he said ¡°I need you all to take a sheet of paper and bring that sheet to the point of the town where it turns red. When the paper turns red, put it down immediately and come back here to pick up another one. Once all one hundred of them are in place, I can begin.¡±


    He waited as the fourteen people moved off with the paper. Some dawdled, some ran and some walked slowly, but within the hour all the sheets were in place. Laurence stood in the centre of the town with the crew waiting and watching expectantly when they heard a rumbling. Only Yun and Laurence could see the tendrils of mana in the surroundings spiralled to all hundred spots, but everyone could hear the sound of shifting rock that had begun all around them. When Xuchi was sent to look at the where the sounds were coming from he discovered the sheets had melted into the rock and begun transforming into beautiful gemstones.


    The gems vibrated as the mana came into contact with them, purifying and empowering them until they shone with an electric blue light. There was a period of silence that persisted for five minutes before, one after the other, the gems lit up and shot beams into the sky. As the final gem ignited, the streams began to coalesce into a blue orb, high in the sky. There was a flash and a crack. Laurence held the white ring into the sky, and the crowd watched in fear as a bolt of lightning that was very reminiscent of the maelstrom snake crashed into the boy.


    Lightning arced all around him before writhing and squirming towards the ring. As more lightning filled it, it began to thrum and vibrate with power until finally there was no more lightning for it to eat. Once the lightning had dissipated, the glow from the ring dimmed until Laurence was left with an electric blue signet ring in the shape of a snake. He smiled bitterly. This ring signified his time with the crew of rosie was over, but he was loath to leave. He had come to be friends with the entirety of the crew, and had even stayed to watch the exile of Yannis and the other surviving mutineer.


    He had felt nothing as the exile took place. Even with the lack of an arm and now a missing eye, Yannis got everything he deserved. In Laurence¡¯s eyes he made a bet and the punishment he had received was fitting enough. The situation with Yannis was what caused Laurence to make the ring and the lightning array as he did. He would not have made anything more for the town but he felt that the best option for Sleepy to become a person of real strength was to give her a place where she could train safely, so he made the array and connected artifact to protect Maelstrom, and by proxy his friend.


    He took the ring to Jonas, who was sat in the middle of the shell of what was to become the town hall. It was a large wooden building, but at this point only had a slate roof and a thin outer shell. The insides were still dirt floored and dim but for the lighting array that Sleepy had put up throughout the town, but that theme persisted throughout the town, and would only change with time.


    Handing the ring to the captain and now leader of the town of Maelstrom, Laurence told him that it was a simple lightning array that could kill anything that the maelstrom snake could have. Originally constructed of only parts of the snake itself, the tools were designed to harness the natural magnetic field of the area and produce a bolt of lightning that could be controlled by the owner of the ring. It was Laurence¡¯s greatest creation, a combination of the array-work he had learned over the last few months and the continued practice he had done. When used this artifact could likely kill a Saint, and was perfect for protecting the town after Laurence had left.


    Within an hour of giving the ring to Jonas, they were on their way. The stele was not far, but the journey was the first that Rosie had taken since they had fought with the snake. By ship, the stele was a short distance from the town, barely fifteen minutes. It would have still taken days for them to walk there, but the ship travelled far quicker than even a Saint could. Laurence said farewell to the crew who had taken him and moved off to the testing floor with his friends.


    On the other side of the stele was a long line going towards a desk. There were two spaces for people that led to the desk, but only one had anyone standing in it. The line had tens of thousands of people in it, stretching far beyond Laurence¡¯s eyes could see. They were full of men and women of all ages, tall and small, many of whom were muttering about their long waiting time. In front of the group was a small sign that said ¡®To the left if you are a challenger, to the right if you are a saint¡¯ in a flowing cursive script.


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    All three of them looked at the line and then immediately walked down the clear path towards the desk. Several times there were grunts of dissatisfaction, and at one point a man tried to break away from the queue and journey down the path that Laurence and his friends were traversing, but the man could not even take one step before falling down to the ground in extreme agony. Several of the other challengers laughed as he struggled. They knew he should have known better, but instead he saw children walking somewhere he should not have and was paying the price.


    They reached the desk and stood in front of it, beside a man who appeared to have been waiting for a while. He looked at them and snorted with derision. Three youths walking up to the adjudicator so brazenly surprised him, but he had seen people cutting in line before and it never went well. The adjudicator did not look up, but instead kept writing, scratching away at the forms in front of him. Every so often he would chew the end of his pen before continuing to fill out boxes on the sheet. Finally the form was complete and the man looked up. He stared at the scornful man who had been waiting for far longer than the trio, then at Laurence, Yun and Louisa before pulling a new form out of a draw below him.


    ¡°So you three are saints, then?¡± He said, completely ignoring the scornful man. ¡°If you arrived in good time, you have a choice. You can continue exploring the in relative safety, or you can jump to the tenth floor of the tower and continue there. Each floor past the tenth will be a much greater struggle for you, because being a saint becomes a norm on floor eleven. The mana in the air is much thicker the further up Babel you go, so you won¡¯t actually gain anything beneficial until you reach the first of the saint floors.¡±


    ¡°Why even let us climb the first five floors then?¡± Replied Laurence. This was something he had been thinking about for a while. He thoroughly outstripped the general public that he met, and so could not understand how this could be considered any form of crucible, like he had been told.


    ¡°You are allowed to climb because golden children need the mana of the first five floors to properly stabilise their foundations as Saints. Generally speaking the pocket dimensions you are all brought up in have next to no mana, to allow for that early upgrade that they seem to love.¡± The scornful man had become irritated that the children had been prioritised over him, and was going to protest until he heard that they were Saints. The colour drained from his face, and he thanked himself for not speaking when he could have, because he might not had survived. ¡°So, floor six, or floor ten?¡± Continued the adjudicator.


    Laurence turned to his two friends. It might have been beneficial for them to travel up the tower slowly, but he wanted to see the harder floors far more than he could bear. ¡°Let¡¯s go to the tenth floor.¡±


    ¡°Alright then. Hand me your pointer stones and I will check your time on the previous floor, then upgrade them to the stage where they would be on the tenth floor.¡± He took the stones, then took out a ring. A stream of symbols passed from the ring onto each stone, morphing them into a similar shape. He also pulled out three bags of shards and placed them in front of the children. ¡°Okay, so inside these bags are eleven silver and ninety copper shards for you. You should be able to live comfortably for a week or so before running out of money on the tenth floor. As for your pointer stones, well they do everything they did before, but amongst other things the shield in them is now more powerful. There¡¯s a small storage space which I will put the medkits, poison kits and talismans that you should get, as well as a communication function between people you¡¯ve met before. If you have experienced their aura then you can connect to their Babelian ring. Within the rest of the tower, this ring will work like the tattoo on your arms, and will fuse with that to bind itself to you. No blood necessary, which is nice.¡±


    He looked them over once more. ¡°If that will be all, then have a nice day.¡± He looked at the man who had been waiting and said, ¡°Next.¡±


    The three moved off towards the stairwell that the adjudicator pointed them to, slightly surprised by his efficiency. There was no test and no difficulties that they had to have gone through, so it was a rather anomalous experience to them. However, having gone through the process so quickly, they had no reason to complain. Climbing the stairs, they mulled over the time that had passed. This floor was the one they had spent the longest on by far, and with it there were many memories and friends they would be leaving behind. They knew that this would continue to happen as they climbed further and further up the tower, but it still left a bittersweet taste in their mouths.


    The climb itself took just under a day of solid walking, but eventually they exited the stairwell and came out to view the tenth floor. All around them there were thatch and stone buildings, the floor was cobble and concrete, and the air was lined with the faint scent of tar. For the first time in Laurence¡¯s life he was in a city.

 Chapter 55: Jim Caesar

    ¡°So where should we go from here?¡± Laurence looked at Louisa pointedly. ¡°You know the ins and outs of Babel in far greater detail than me or Yun, so where should we go?¡±


    ¡°I''m not sure. I know there''s a square near the stele that challengers are supposed to go to, but I''m not sure how to get there. Perhaps we should ask someone?¡± Laurence could see Louisa was floundering, but he understood why. The city loomed over them in a way that was almost oppressive. It was like they were crawling around in between the scales of a monolithic dragon and it knew they were there. Laurence took the situation calmly, but Yun less so. The normally stoic wolf-boy had begun sweating profusely at the feeling and looked like he was about to throw up. He was not simply oppressed by the aura, Laurence could tell he was scared by something.


    Before anyone said a word, Yun leapt into the air and climbed up onto the nearest rooftop. As he disappeared Laurence sent the statement Brother, are you sick?


    There was a moment before Yun replied This one is well, sensed the tracks of a monster. The word monster was less a statement about some sort of deformed aberration, and more of an implication that it was a beast that even godbeasts were scared of. It was an apex predator beyond compare, to the point where simply the path it tracked terrified Yun, and the claustrophobic situation he was in only made things worse.


    As they stood in the street, waiting for Yun to come down, they heard a scuffle from a nearby street. The street they were on was completely unpopulated, so Laurence immediately rushed to see whether the person there would help them find the challengers plaza. He followed the sound until he came to an entrance and looked down the alley before him.


    It was a rundown affair, more of a place to put out refuse than a street proper. Littered with bags of rubbish and shattered created crates, it quickly became hard for Laurence to see down the length of. There was a rustling at the limit of his sight and suddenly a boy about a year older than him burst into view. The boy had been running for a while now, his red face and wheezing breath tantamount to that, but from what he could not tell. For a moment there was fear in his eyes as he saw Laurence, before that quickly disappeared and was replaced with worry.


    The boy dove into a box that had been turned on its side and tried to catch his breath as quietly as possible. Laurence began walking up to him, seeing him in the boxes, but he could not see what the boy was running from. When the boy motioned at Laurence to hide, or perhaps stay away, Laurence became confused. He simply had no idea what, in a civilised place like the city, could cause a boy to run so. If this had been the primeval jungle of the first floor, or the wasteland of the second, he could understand, but right now he could not.


    As the boy¡¯s waving became more frantic, Laurence understood less. He wondered if this thing coming was what Yun had become so scared of, but after about five seconds he saw two men come crashing through the waste and detritus that persisted throughout the alley. One of the men saw Laurence and shouted ¡°Hey! Kid!¡±


    The other man elbowed him and said ¡°Dal, that''s not him. The one we''re looking for is older.¡±


    ¡°Yeah, but these street kids are as thick as thieves.¡± He laughed at his statement. ¡°Oy, kid!¡± He shouted again. ¡°I know you saw him, because otherwise you''d bit be standing there like a fool.¡±


    The boy curled up into a ball, trying to make himself as small as possible, when he heard the men. He gave Laurence a pleading look, as if to beg for silence. Laurence had no reason to help the boy, but the men annoyed him. He disliked being called foolish.


    ¡°No. I''ve not seen anyone.¡± He replied. The boy in the create gave him a look filled with thanks.


    ¡°See, Dal? Sometimes you just have to beat it out of them.¡±


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    ¡°Shut up Jin.¡± Said the first man. They were both wiry, but the one called Dal seemed to lead. ¡°Boy, if you don''t tell me where that other boy went, then things may become rather painful for you. You hear me?¡±


    Laurence looked on. He could see that the men were trying to incite fear into him, they began walking over in unison, but they were far from being as frightening as either Garral or the maelstrom snake. He said nothing as the men closed in, but could feel his heartbeat rising. He could feel the joy of battle building in him. He hated the loss of control he felt when he fought the snake, but the rest of what he felt at the time made the rest of reality seem like it was in sepia.


    He simply watched until the men were around five meters away before he began to move. Kill. He nearly tripped up when he heard the voice again. It was back. It had not shown up in the month that he had been in maelstrom with Jonas and Sleepy, but this creature, whatever it was, seemed to be summoned by his blood-lust.


    He ignored it. The men were two meters away now. Slightly too close for comfort, but nothing he could not deal with. Kill. There it was again, this time he was prepared though. He touched his snakeskin pouch and slowly pulled a war-hammer the same size as his body out of it. The hammer was dyed blue and sheathed in snakes of lightning. Its presence alone made the two men pause for thought. There was something wrong here, but Laurence knew they would be deaf before they understood what.


    ¡°Kill.¡± He said as they took their first steps within the two meter mark. Flicking out the hammer, he levelled it at the men, before cleaving twice. First, he cleaved right, through the chest cavity of the man known as Dal. Then he cleaved left, through the head of the man known as Jin. Two simple movements overflowing with brutality and rage that also crushed the walls either side of the street, exposing a pair of mild mannered families homes to the elements and the gobbets of gore that Laurence had created.


    As fast as the men died, he calmed down. The rage was gone, and he was clear-headed again. He could not hear the voice any more. It was clear to him; whatever it was, it only came out when he had the urge out kill. ¡°You can come out now.¡± Laurence said.


    ¡°Are you sure?¡± The older boy replied. He stuck his head out of the box and looked at the alleyway, or at least what was left of it. ¡°By the lady''s...¡± He gaped at the mess in front of him. It was like a bomb had gone off in the alley, destroy the two pursuers. He gagged and covered his mouth with his hand. He turned to try and avoid the sight of the two corpses, but the damage was done. His cheeks ballooned and the contents of his stomach spayed all over the nearby wall. He swore. ¡°What did you do? How did you..?¡±


    ¡°I got rid of them.¡± Laurence replied. His tone neutral. He understood that seeing a corpse for the first time could be a harrowing experience for some people, but the boy was making far more complaints than Laurence was expecting. ¡°I''m Laurence, what''s your name?¡±


    The boy wiped his mouth, clearing off the last couple of trails of spittle and bile left on his face. ¡°You¡¯re crazy, but thank you I guess. I''m James, James Caesar. Call me Jim, if you like.¡± He clenched his jaw tightly and began to rifle through the clothes of the two men. Pulling out two pouches from around their belts, he looked up. ¡°What''s your name, and what district are you from?¡±


    ¡°I''m Laurence Absolution. I''m not from a district, I just arrived in the city.¡±


    ¡°Laurence eh? I''m going to call you Law. Seeing as you just broke it.¡± Jim paused, looked at the pouches in his hands then slowly back up at Laurence. ¡°Not from a district?¡± His voice shook. ¡°Absolution?¡± He swallowed. ¡°I think I''m going to throw up again.¡±

 Chapter 56: Spring Street

    ¡°So, what you''re telling me is I just became friends with a goddamn Saint?¡± Jim grinned. ¡°A goddamn Saint!¡± The boy was elated. There was very little that could make him smile, but he seemed like he had just won the lottery. ¡°So, do you need a guide around Spirit? I can guide you round the city, or at least the desolate strip and executioners pen. You should come to Spring Street. That''s where I live. I wouldn''t say I''m from there, but I''ve lived in the same building on the street since my deadbeat father disappeared.¡± His words were coming out at a mile a minute, and the sentences he was saying rammed together, as if they were one.


    ¡°Yes, me and my friends need a guide for the city. There''s supposed to be a plaza for the challengers who come through, and it should be nearby, but we have no idea which direction to travel.¡±


    ¡°You have friends? I bet they are as strong as you. Oh man, this will be fun.¡± Thinking about everything else Laurence had said he stopped. ¡°There''s the old court in the pen, though no one has used that for anything in years. I can''t imagine it will be much help, but Spring Street is just off there, so you may as well come my way anyway.¡±


    The two boys continued chatting until Yun was ready to descend, and in that time Laurence learned many things about Jim. The boy was a thief, a cut-purse and a disowned member of the Caesar clan. His father had done something that was against the rules of the clan, and had been banished for it, along with his family line. The man had devolved from a powerful practitioner of the Book of Order into a drunkard that Jim had no respect for.


    He lived on his own, but the old woman who lived next to him would occasionally give the boy food. Jim had no idea how many times she had actually kept him from starving, but he still found that theft was more reliable. The only danger that a thief faced in Spirit was the legion of Sir Robert Anvale, the Bobby¡¯s boys.


    They were a group of soldiers who kept the status quo in Spirit, investigating crimes and catching criminals who break the peace. The boys, or bobbies, were heavily endorsed by the clans and some were even clansmen who weren''t quite talented enough to become a Saint before they turned twenty but still had the drive to work outside their respective clan dimensions. Often they would set up shop and live in the realms they were expected to work in, raising auxiliary families and clans in the public eye.


    They were a pain for the thieves in the city because they were so numerous and dedicated. The clans prided themselves in the loyalty the Bobbies showed. While the Bobbies were often less powerful than a Saint, they were feared because they were zealous to the point of insanity in their keeping of the status quo, as well as the fact that in every year for all three of the golden children there would be at least a hundred people who simply were not quite as good, but still wanted to explore the tower. They would train and study the book, and at the point they reached peak Earth rank they would be released into the floor and given to Sir Robert. If they proved themselves capable, not only would they gain recognition from their clan but they would also gain access to rare medicines that could boost their cognitive abilities. The quicker they could learn, the greater their chance of attaining Sainthood, and that meant their longevity would increase by over a hundred years.


    The trio inundated Jim with questions about the way things worked in the city they had found themselves in, but the more they asked the more they realised how limited Jim''s knowledge was. It was understandable, though. The city was massive in scale and scope, and assuming that a single child could know everything was profoundly naive. Jim did know a lot about two subjects though; the local gangs and the bobbies.


    He claimed he was in a gang, and that they were the main reason why he had managed to survive on his own for years. The gang he said he was in was called the ¡®Spring Street Bashers¡¯, one that prided itself on taking in only the strongest and most courageous people to be members. They holed up in an abandoned bakery near the centre of the street itself, and had spent the last two years turning the bakery from a shop into a fort. It was slow going, but the exterior was now far more intimidating than it had been originally.


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    The group stood outside the bakery and studied it in all its glory. The downstairs windows were shored up, with wooden spikes protruding out of the base of each windowsill. There was pit situated in front of the building, funnelling anyone who wanted to enter the building over a thin stone bridge and towards the incredibly thick and heavy door that seemed to be the only way in.


    Jim stood outside the door and knocked three times in quick succession, then once, then twice as quickly as the first set. A thin slit opened at eye level and they heard a voice float outside. ¡°Who is it?¡± Said the female voice behind the door.


    ¡°Nae, it''s Jim. I''ve got some potentials that the boss might like.¡± The moment Jim spoke, the door swung open. In front of them was a young woman, about Louisa¡¯s age, covered in tattoos and a young man, wearing completely black attire. They both had an air of command about them, but the man had one that was more approachable. Nae had aura of animosity that seemed to circle her cause people to be wary around her.


    ¡°An albino, a six year old girl and an outlander who''s as bald as a monk? This is your idea of potential?¡± She scoffed, turning to look at the man by her side. ¡°Orwell, are you seeing this?¡±


    ¡°Of course I am Nae,¡± the young man,Orwell replied.


    ¡°Who''s a six year old girl?¡± Said Louisa, her voice lined with a very distinctive layer of threat and her eyes bulging wide. Laurence self-consciously stroked his scalp. His long hair had been burned off by the general aura of the maelstrom snake, and it was only now beginning to grow back. His eyebrows were in much the same state.


    As Laurence mulled over his lack of head hair, Louisa began to shift her form, sliding out of the shadow she usually took and into the form of a stunningly graceful woman. She was built like a gazelle, and with the face of an angel, she could not help but put Nae to shame. ¡°How¡¯s this for child, girl?¡± she said, her voice dropping from the childish mezzo soprano to the much more womanly alto.


    Both Orwell and Nae took a step back at the sight. Orwell swore, ¡°By the lady''s eye! Is this what you meant by gifted, Jim? Are we going to be inundated by a menagerie of shape-shifters?¡±


    ¡°That''s not the best part.¡± Jim turned and looked at his new friends. ¡°Guys, this is the HQ of the Spring Street Bashers. My home. Behind me are the two leaders of the gang, Orwell and Nae¡± He turned and looked at Orwell. ¡°Boss, these are my friends, Law - the bald one, Yun - the albino, and Louisa - the shape-shifter. The thing you should know about them is that they are all Saints!¡±


    Nae and Orwell both opened their mouths to say something then stopped. They closed their mouths in unison and looked at each other. Then they looked back at the group standing behind Jim. Orwell raised his hand and looked like he was about to say something but could not find the right words. Finally, after what felt like an hour Nae said ¡°Do you have any proof?¡±


    Laurence held out his right hand. On his index finger there was a little black ring in the shape of a snake with one eye. At the blank looks he received he finally spoke. ¡°My name is Laurence Absolution. I am a golden child of the Absolution clan and a Saint tier challenger. If you want proof of my Sainthood then you should know that only a Saint can materialise their spirit as a tool or creature. Well this is mine. Come, Jormugand!¡± The moment he called the name of his weapon he thrust out his fist, palm up, and a bead of black fire sprouted from between his fingers, quickly growing into a pole before the eyes of everyone around. The flame spread into the shape of a hammerhead around a foot tall and two feet wide, then tapered back into a bladed point. Twisting the hammer made of fire round so that the tip pointed to the sky, he slammed it into the ground. The flames seemed to crystallise for a moment before shattering, revealing a black-steel hammer that was wreathed in flame.

 Chapter 57: The Three Choices

    Nae and Orwell stood as still as statues, Jim grinned with eyes glittering like sapphires, and Laurence stood there with a very slight smirk on his face. Jim had told them that they might have to impress the leaders before they were allowed to take the initiation test, so that''s what Laurence aimed to do. He judged that it had worked, by the fact that the two leaders of the group had not moved a muscle since he summoned his hammer.


    ¡°That was incredible, Law!¡± Jim said, barely able to hold back his awe. ¡°Did you see that?¡± He turned to look at the two leaders of the gang, frozen in shock.


    ¡°Well.¡± Orwell swore. Then he swore again. ¡°I guess Nae was wrong on this one. You guys really are special. What can you do?¡± He said, looking at Yun.


    ¡°I don''t do tricks,¡± the stoic wolf-boy replied.


    ¡°Take my word for it, he''s as strong as me,¡± said Laurence.


    ¡°I believe you,¡± said Nae, finally releasing herself from her statuesque stupor. ¡°Though if you said you were the son of Bloody Gus, or the reincarnation of the Grand Wild, I would probably believe you.¡±


    ¡°Well actually...¡±


    ¡°Shut up Jim,¡± Orwell and Nae said simultaneously.


    ¡°No, Jim is right. My father is Bloody Gus, or at least according to another golden child I know. Apparently Angus Absolution is not a very common name anymore.¡±


    ¡°I think I''m numb to shocking news,¡± Nae said in a pained voice. ¡°Jim, you''re the luckiest brat I have ever seen in my life. If all three of them pass the initiation trial then you get first access to the fence this week.¡±


    Jim whooped with joy at Nae¡¯s promise. Getting first chance to talk to the fence was a massive boon to anyone in the gang. There was barely one fence between three gangs in the city, so they were always in high demand to buy and sell stolen goods. The person who was first allowed to go to peruse a fence¡¯s wares would be able to get the best things from the other gangs and make the most money off their sales. Being first was the simplest prize that all the leaders used to keep their crews or gangs in line, while being the last was often the punishment for bringing in the least money, or just doing the worst that week.


    Orwell and Nae ushered the four inside the building, Louisa shrank back into the form she found most comfortable and Laurence dismissed Jormugand. The show they had put on was more for the leaders of the gang than anyone else.


    ¡°From this point on,¡± Jim said, ¡°You should never be afraid of standing up for yourself in this place, but never go all out. If you do then people will get a measure of you and play you if they can.¡±


    ¡°Play you?¡± Said Louisa.


    ¡°Yeah, Try and work out what makes you tick, then get what they can from you. Often through exploiting your weaknesses or playing to your ego. Many of the younger gang members have gotten in a lot of trouble and a lot of debt by relying too much on their elders.¡± He looked left and right, as if to make sure that no one could overhear him. ¡° We¡¯re all in it for ourselves, but I always pay my debts. Law likely saved my life, so as far as I¡¯m concerned I¡¯m his friend for the rest of eternity.¡±


    ¡°Thanks,¡± said Laurence. There was very little else he felt that he needed to say in response to that. Jim was a rogue, and seemed a little too smart for his own good, but he was loyal, and that was something that Laurence liked in a person.


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    ¡°No problem. Just remember that everyone here is in the gang to survive. Sure, we¡¯re stronger together, but everyone still looks out for number one.¡±


    ¡°The pack leader?¡± Said Yun.


    ¡°No, themself,¡± said Jim. ¡°Look, just be careful okay? Just because you are strong doesn¡¯t mean you can¡¯t make enemies. The person you offend might not be able to kill you, but they can still make life way more difficult for you than it needs to be.¡±


    As Jim finished talking, they walked down a set of stairs and into a large, open cavern. In the middle of the cavern there was a ring, as well as a strange dummy and a pair of pathways that curved off, out of sight. Those three sections of the cavern were the three trials of the gang.


    Jim walked his three friends down into the middle of the cavern, before taking a few steps back. As he did the room began to fill up. Rings of seats around the room slowly began to become populated until there were three or four hundred people between the age of five and twenty in three rings around the room. Orwell walked out of the large hallway that Laurence had walked out of; following him was another ten people. The ten other people trying out lined up next to Laurence, Yun and Louisa quietly, and apprehensively stood waiting.


    ¡°Good day ladies and gentlemen of Spring Street,¡± he began. ¡°We are here today for the daily tryouts within the gang.¡± Orwell turned and looked at the thirteen young people lined up behind him. ¡°For those of you who don¡¯t know, my name is Orwell, and I am the night manager of the Spring Street Bashers. We of Spring Street pride ourselves on at least one of two things, physical strength and courage. We go where no one else will, either because we are stronger, or because we are fearless! We are the bravest and best thieves in this damn city and we intend to keep it that way!¡± There was a loud cheer at that statement. Orwell¡¯s pride in his voice, combined with his avid, but precise gesticulation made him an incredible speaker to watch. ¡°We will test you in one of three ways, each testing the two facets of the gang and the three main skills of the thief. If you pass any single one then you are in.¡± There was a collective sigh amongst the candidates. ¡°Do not get complacent. We of the gang all know the difficulty that you have to face within this set of tests, but do not worry, you get once chance at each.


    ¡°The first test is the test of skill. You must walk up to the dummy in the middle of the room and take one of the ten coins placed on it without disturbing any of the bells within the dummy.¡± Orwell walked over to the dummy and tapped it lightly, letting out a cascading tinkling of bells that echoed throughout the cavern. ¡°You hear that sound and you fail. Nice and simple. Next is the arena, this one is pretty obviously a test of strength. Today we have Damien as our resident wall. If you can simply stay in the ring for four minutes without him knocking you out, or just out of the ring, then you pass.¡± He walked up to the ring and patted the shoulder of a large man with a sallow face who stood just out of the centre of the cavern. The man frowned as he looked at the group in front of him, he obviously did not feel comfortable with the fact that there were young children in the group of entrants.


    ¡°The final test is the most complicated, but the one that people pass most often. It¡¯s a pathway filled with traps. If you can make it through the trapped path within five minutes then you succeed. The issue with this path is that it is pitch black inside, so you will be going in blind. If you have no questions then I will take my leave and enjoy the show.¡± Orwell bowed and walked off the stage and let the thirteen candidates choose their trial.

 Chapter 58: Shock

    Laurence, Yun and Louisa all chose separate tests to show of their respective skills. Laurence, being physically the strongest, chose combat. Yun chose the dummy, as he was the most dexterous of the three, and Louisa chose the path because of her godly mobility and shapeshifting ability. They lined up respectively and waited for their turns in each field. Louisa had the longest wait, as including herself there were six people taking the same test. It was the most populated test by far. In Laurence¡¯s queue there were two boys about the same age as Damien, he was the only one under the age of seventeen in the challenge. Most people had been intimidated away by Damien. Yun¡¯s line was a bit longer than Laurence¡¯s but not by much. With three other people in the queue, it seemed that only the supremely confident would attempt this final challenge.


    The first one up to the podium was Yun. He walked over to the dummy and circled around it once before punching out with his right hand. Once he punched he walked off the stage, leaving the crowd with confused looks. Has he given up? Many members of the gang began muttering immediately. The muttering became a slight rumble as they were denied an answer, but even in spite of increasingly fierce protests he said nothing. He sat down, near where Orwell was and proceeded to begin watching the rest of the trials as they went on.


    Orwell leant over, whispered something in Yun¡¯s ear, and looked shocked when Yun responded. It was inaudible to the crowd and did not placate them in the slightest, but Yun¡¯s next action did. He flicked something into the air and the crowd watched as a small golden coin arced towards Orwell¡¯s hand. The coin landed in Orwell¡¯s palm and he held his fist in the air.


    ¡°We have three first new member of our gang!¡± He shouted. The furious and conduits muttering quickly turned into a shocked roar of approval. ¡°We welcome you, what is your name?¡±


    ¡°Yun.¡±


    ¡°A man of few words I see,¡± he said. ¡°Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on your joining of Spring Street.¡±


    ¡°Thanks.¡± Yun replied, wolfish grin and all.


    There were several other attempts before Louisa¡¯s go came, but in her course there were several two or three minute successes, but they all came out covered in cuts and bruises. This path was quickly becoming the most feared choice by the testees, simply because no one knew what was inside. Several times through each attempt at the path there would be screams of shock or pain. Both the injuries and the screams of pain were becoming more frequent as the trial went on, but because of how dark it was, no one could tell how. There were many people who assumed it was simply becoming more difficult thanks to purple losing blood.


    Eventually it came to be Louisa¡¯s turn. She walked over to the pathway and entered, quickly turning out of sight to the rest of the people in the cavern. Normally within ten or twenty seconds there would be a yell or a scream, but instead there was nothing. The crowd began to quieten before descending into complete silence. Perhaps the little girl who had gone in was the first fatality. The sound of the pugilists was the only thing that echoed through the cavern, until finally another sound broke the silence. There was a ringing of the bells in the dummy. A minute ticked by and there were still no sounds, there weren''t even the sounds of traps inside being set off. There were no let off springs or chains clashing out into life. There was only quiet.


    Finally at a minute and thirty seconds Louisa walked out of the path, through the exit, and bowed to the crowd. She was completely unscathed, to the point where there was not even a speck of blood on her clothing. She was calmer, and more stoic than Yun, so simply walked over to her canine idol and say next to him once the event was over.


    Rather than the shouts and applause that Yun got for being so proficient, the crowd simply let out a collective sigh of relief at the fact that a potential candidate did not die. Occasionally there would be deaths in either the combat ring or the path of darkness, but they were rare and always uncomfortable situations. The fact that Louisa survived lifted a weight from the collective minds and spirits of the gang.


    The crowd picked up again as they watched the final six testees go through the motions of seeing whether they were worthy. In the twelve or so minutes that it took for Louisa to pass her test the two boys had fought Damien and both had passed. The first round they were evenly matched in skill but the boy going up to fight looked like he was half Damien¡¯s weight.


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    The bell rang and the two fighters began their dance. Damien was a bull, he charged with all his strength and tried to simply crush the boy on stage with him. The boy, Mord, took this charge as a challenge, but rather than fight him head on he acted like a matador to Damien¡¯s bull. Every time Damien charged, Mord turned him and diverted him away, which only served to tire Damien out and make him angrier. Eventually Mord slipped up, reacting slightly too slow. Perhaps it was out of exhaustion, or perhaps simple distraction, but either way there was a sickening crunch as Damien collided into Mord¡¯s chest. The boy span and hit the floor hard. It was easy to tell that he was likely out for the count, but he had angered Damien.


    Damien ran towards where the boy lay and pulled his leg back. He swung a kick that could have easily crushed the boy''s skull when the bell rang. Visibly slowing, he still ended up kicking Mord in the jaw. There was another crunch and he grinned.


    ¡°That''s what you get for making a fool out of me,¡± he said, spitting on the barely conscious boy before walking out of the ring to rest. The crowd went wild at the fight, even at Mord being damaged beyond what should have been allowed. To them it was simply his mistake for going up against Damien. He had passed, and was likely still alive, so the audience simply did not care.


    After three minutes of rest the second fight began. This time Damien¡¯s combatant was a boy heavier than him, but much slower. He also seemed to know Damien, so greeted the boy with a smile. Everyone could already tell that this fight would be a show rather than the actual fight they had just seen. The crowd had a much more mixed response to this than they had to the real fight, some cheers and some boos, though nothing consistent enough to call itself a general feeling to the crowd.


    The two men met in the middle and posteured a little before beginning to swing their fists. You could tell they were actually hiring each other, but pulling their punches to the point where they may as well have been just tickling each other. The sound of flesh hitting flesh echoed around the cavern as the crowd went silent. It was at this point that Louisa had been in the path of darkness for a full minute. People stopped paying attention to the fight in the middle and began staring at the path.


    The bell rang and Damien and his friend got off the stage, they expected a few cheers and boos, like there had been at the beginning, but instead there was nothing. Not a sound. When the crowd finally began moving again, Damien could not help but stare angrily at the girl who had stolen his limelight. There was a palpable sense of aggression towards Louisa, which Yun felt immediately. He snarled angrily at the sensation and sent a message to Laurence. Brother, I am angered by this human¡¯s intent towards mate. Harm him.


    Laurence smiled to himself. Brother, it is done. He walked up to the stage and stood, waiting for Damien to finish his rest. Standing with a wide stance and his hands on his hips he looked like an arrogant child who simply did not know how deep the water he stood in was. ¡°Take as much time as you need,¡± he said to Damien, ¡°you''re going to fail either way.¡±


    Damien¡¯s eyebrow twitched. A baby could see that this child was egging him on, but he had no idea why, nor where his confidence came from. After a minute to get his breath back and wipe off the sweat he was covered in he got on the stage. It was an odd sight, a boy less than a meter and a half tall facing off against a two meter tall giant. No one would describe it as fair, but Laurence¡¯s unbridled confidence made the fight seem interesting at least.


    The bell rang and Damien charged at Laurence, just like he had in the first round against Mord. This time, however, Laurence did not dodge to the side like a matador. Instead he ducked under and punched. Another splintering sound echoed through the cavern as Damien was sent flying by the boy''s strike. There was a visible fist imprint that had warped his gut and pulverised one of his ribs, but the most shocking thing of all was that Laurence was just standing on the stage smiling to himself and humming.

 Chapter 59: Snitches

    The cavern was silent, so silent that you could hear the breathing of a person across the room from you in it. Yet there was no one breathing.


    Damien was off the stage, in a broken pile. His bravado, his overbearing aura of strength and his vicious character had been crushed in moments by a single strike from Laurence. Nothing like this had happened before in the history of the gang. Nothing like this would likely ever happen again. There was truly nothing that had prepared the the children of Spring Street for this. To them, bigger was better. The bigger, tougher, and more muscular you were, the stronger you were; so the more you could get away with. That was why the most respected people were the strongest and the bravest. They would be able to bring in the biggest loot piles thorough feats of strength or daring.


    Laurence had turned their world upside down. He was not the biggest, he definitely did not have the largest muscles, and he was incredibly thin. It was simply impossible for anyone to comprehend how he had dominated Damien so decisively.


    As the next challenger of the path of darkness came out they were confronted with the same bizarre tableau that had plagued the crowds. The young boy''s gasp of ¡°What...?¡± broke the silence and freed everyone from their shock. Sound rushed back into the cavern like a tsunami. It quickly consumed everyone as they began roaring at the insane turn of events that had taken place. No one could stop talking about it, it was simply too shocking.


    As the few people who were dedicated to treating the wounded rushed over to look after Damien, Laurence got off the stage and walked over to the other seat next to Yun. He sat down and looked at Orwell, then at Jim, who was grinning from ear to ear. Not only had the boy backed the right horses, they had managed to reveal a lot about themselves without actually revealing anything at all.


    When the shouts and gasps of shock finally calmed down Orwell had the chance to finally talk. ¡°That... That was insane. That was bizarre. Mother Babel...¡± He could not help but swear. ¡°Is Damien allright?¡± At the nod of the medics he looked at Laurence with wary eyes. ¡°Well, you¡¯ve shown you¡¯re definitely strong. If you¡¯re this strong now, then there''s no doubt you will become a powerhouse of the gang in no time at all. Tell us your name!¡±


    ¡°My name is Laurence Absolution.¡± Once more Laurence managed to shock the crowd. There were no stunned silences now, but instead whispers of confusion. Everyone knew what that clan name entailed, and no one would deny that Laurence¡¯s bizarre strength made him fit into their perceived mould for that of a golden child. The issue people were having was that they could not work out why he was joining the gang. Spring Street was an abandoned area of Spirit, without clan contribution. At one point the area obviously did have clan influences, because there were so many treasures in almost every building, but the influence had been lacking for years.


    Orwell swore again, before appealing to the murmuring crowd. ¡°By the Lady''s eye... a member of the clans...¡± The disbelief was thick in his voice, but Laurence could not understand why. Orwell knew he was a golden child. The young man looked at Laurence and winked quickly before continuing. ¡°I guess, ladies and gentlemen of our beloved street, we have an Absolution clan member in our gang now. He has proven his strength beyond question, so let¡¯s continue with the challenges!¡±


    He ushered another strong person onto the arena and let the children and teens try to do what even a seven year old could do. By the end of the night all of the entrants had completed the tests, and all had passed. Generally speaking the gang would not have more than about six people pass the tests each week, but today over double that had passed. In fact before Laurence got onto the stage, the only trial that had received failures was Yun¡¯s.


    The event came to a close as the final person exited the path of darkness. It had been a brutal day, not necessarily unusual for the entrance tests, but far more shocking than any event before it. As the troupe of new members left the cavern, the crowd continued to cheer and holler at them. The sound echoed down the tunnel and gave it a slightly warped edge to it, making them seem somewhat demonic. Orwell had warned them about this but it was far more unsettling than anyone had expected.


    After a ten minute walk they exited the tunnel and were shown to their rooms. There were two large spaces, for males and females of all ages, with pallets sprawled all over the rooms. This was where they would be spending a lot of their time before they attempted to continue to climb. When shown their new sleeping spaces they were informed that they would be given better accommodation of they could do something of great merit to the gang, either by bringing in a consistent amount of valuables or by harming the income of any of their rivals. The caveat was that by you going up, someone else would be pushed down. Generally speaking the person who went down would be the person who did most poorly over the preceding months. The only exception to this was those that held their spot for over a year. If they could manage to keep a private room for a year then a new wing would be built with four extra rooms so they did not have to leave.


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    Laurence and his friends got settled into life in the gang quickly thanks to Jim, whose sage advice often steered them out of trouble. Within the week they began working jobs to begin accruing merit within the gang. It was tense to begin with, but the sheer physical competence that Laurence, Yun and Louisa had by being Saints pushed them past many of the other members of the gang.


    By the time they had been in the gang for a month, all three were in the top twenty of the most reliable members. They were valued, and while not universally liked, were very much respected. After what happened to Damien, no one wanted to get on the wrong side of Laurence¡¯s strong arms.


    Days trickled by, and they began rising in the ranks quickly, turning heads but making a few enemies in the process. Yun was unaffected, but occasionally someone would grass Laurence or Louisa to the bobbies and they would have to quickly escape from groups hunting them. The presence of some kind of police force was much lower in the desolate strip than the majority of Spirit, but there were still men and women who were in the employ of Robert Anvale in the area.


    Calling the bobbies on a job was the simplest way for someone to attack the value of a person within the gang without either attracting their attention or their ire. Often the ¡®hit squad¡¯ that would be sent to deal with gangs of thieves was comprised of people who could even take on Saints, despite being of Earthen rank themselves. They achieved this through a combination of extremely precise teamwork and an affluence in the Dominus clans Break Talismans. A Break Talisman was a key tool for anyone in combat. Looking like simple pieces of paper, they contained the aura of a peak person of the tool''s equivalent tier. This aura could do one of three things depending on the will of the original maker; they could bind a target to a location, stun and befuddle a target, or shatter a construct made of mana.


    These talismans were extremely effective, because they ignored the skill or strength of their target and the talismans themselves increased effectiveness multiplicatively. They could be applied at a distance as long as you could see the target, and did not wane in power over distance at all. Their only real weakness was that, like all talismans, they were single use. Once they had run their course or were overwhelmed they would turn to dust.


    It was precisely these talismans that Laurence and his friends began encountering six months into their tenure in Spring Street. They had fast become valued members of the gang, by bringing in consistently large scores as a team of four. By their third month Laurence, Jim, Yun and Louisa had all been upgraded to solo rooms, which turned a few heads, and made the up-setted gang members disgruntled. People snitching on their claimed ground increased dramatically, and almost every single job they staked a claim to in the gang main hall was covered with bobbies by the time they arrived.


    It got to the point where they would stake four targets per job and they could only hope for the best that the person or people who were snitching would pick the wrong target. They got lucky for three straight months, but eventually they rolled snake eyes.


    They were attempting to break into a vault that had long been considered unbreakable, a single room covered from roof to floor in arrays that all covered each other. If someone attempted to sever a single seal then they would immediately trigger the rest of the arrays, which in turn would force them away and repair the broken array. It was a process that many would have failed, but Laurence thought that there should be a way in without having to break any of the arrays. He did not get the chance to test his theory, however, as the moment he worked out the first step to opening the room he heard a voice echo into the building.


    ¡°Law the Young! We, the good men of Sir Robert Anvale¡¯s policing force, have you surrounded. Please give up, else we will be forced to employ talismanic effects.¡±

 Chapter 60: Stitches

    Laurence lowered his hands, separating them from the streams of mana that controlled the arrays in front of him. He sighed. The last six months had changed Laurence. He was taller, a lot more people savvy and that knife-like edge he had was safely sheathed behind a fa?ade of friendliness. It was not just his person that had changed either, his skill at making arrays had leapt a level. Unfortunately he had reached a bottleneck within his cultivation path.


    He had now spent two years learning from the Book of Creation, he had reached and understood everything he could from the book, but the simple fact of the matter was that he was stuck. Not a single one of the ninety-nine Myriad Manifestations seemed to fit the bill for him, but he needed to make a Manifestation to ascend to Heaven. It was impossible otherwise.


    So here he stood, a peak Saint, his team near him and the bobbies surrounding them outside. He frowned, quickly popping a few Iksara Seeds into his mouth. Iksara Seeds were a relatively common produce for apothecaries as the plant thinned the blood. The seeds themselves had the added bonus of speeding up cognition to almost double the normal pace that it ran at. For the minute or so that it was active in the body a person would think with the speed of a god.


    Laurence looked out the window of the building and then decided on his plan of attack. ¡°Guys, I''m the one they want. They don''t want you as much, so I will draw them away. I should be fine, but I will need to punch through the thickest part to draw them away.¡±


    ¡°Brother, that''s insane,¡± said Yun. The boy was still of equal height with Laurence, despite their difference in effective ages. At over a meter and a quarter he was beginning to loom over Louisa, who had not grown at all in the time. Jim was the same height as both the other boys, his year not appearing to give him much advantage in that regard.


    ¡°I agree with Yun. If we all push through the weakest point of the barricade, then we should be able to get out easily. We''re three Saints and an Earth challenger. It''s not like they can stop us.¡± Jim was often the voice of reason in the group. Where Laurence was intelligent, Jim was wise. He could think up ten reasons why any of Laurence¡¯s plans needed to be curtailed within moments, but he would never outright say that any idea was wrong. It just was not the way he worked.


    ¡°Not this time.¡± Laurence pointed at the more dense part of the perimeter, then at the men on the nearby roofs. ¡°Look, the bobbies are two thick over there, and the men up there are ready to jump down at a moment''s notice. If I dash out and punch through there, then there is a chance I could get away. If we go through the weaker point then the guys up high will target us as well and there will be two losses. Likely you, Jim, and you, Yun. Louisa is simply too hard to hit when she doesn''t want to be.¡±


    Yun growled, but said nothing. ¡°Fine, Law,¡± said Jim, ¡°but if you''re caught... You better not say anything about the gang. Orwell would have a fit, and whomever is snitching will have a field day.¡±


    ¡°Trust me.¡± Laurence smiled a wan smile as blood began dripping from his nose. He swore. ¡°Damn, backlash.¡± Stemming the bleeding with some mana, he looked at his friends. ¡°Okay, as soon as they focus on me, just run in the opposite direction.¡±


    Laurence moved to the window near the front of the building as the rest of his team moved to one near the back. He wiped the blood off his face and then raised his left hand. Releasing a rope of light out into the crowd, he managed to latch onto a bobby with ease. The young man looked at the beam of light that wounds around him in a confused manner before he was jolted off his feet, towards Laurence¡¯s window. He yelled out in shock as he closed on the window before it shattered and a young boy used the man as a springboard for diving into the crowd below. There was a sickening crunch when the boy¡¯s feet hit the ribs of the airborne man, and then another as he landed on the shoulders of the nearest bobby.


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    Laurence was like a whirlwind of broken bones and torn flesh as he passed through the crowd before him. He did not aim to kill, as he knew they took great offence at that, but instead he maimed as many men as he could before the talismans began landing. Step by step he pressed through the crowd until finally he broke through, which turned out to be more of a curse than a blessing.


    While Laurence was tall for his age, he was not tall in general. He was an eight year old boy, and stood at about two thirds of the height of an adult. For that reason, he had been mostly hidden by the crowd of flesh that had surrounded him, and for the same reason, the Break Talismans began training down on him thick and fast the moment he came into sight.


    The first talisman was nothing to the boy. They were earth rank talismans, and while they could knock out an elephant, they were simply not enough to deal with a Saint like Laurence. The second hit and he brushed it off, as he did with the third, fourth and fifth. Then the sixth landed and it sent a jolt through his body. The bobbies had cottoned on and had begun to use Saint level talismans.


    The next wave came thick and fast, with Laurence ignoring the wave of three, but the fifth Talisman knocked him down. He was having to use more and more mana to dispel the effects of each talisman, to the point where he had drained half his reservoir in around a second. He stood and pushed on, he had to give the rest time to escape. He said he would, and would stick to his promises, no matter the cost.


    The next three talismans did not knock him down again, but did obliterate his eyesight. A white flash concealed the world around the boy, but his truesight could still see his surroundings. He could see that Yun and the rest were clear of the barricade, and that there was only one bobby following them. They were free.


    He smiled as he felt the next eight talismans lock him down for good, paralysing everything but his vital functions. Laurence lay there, occasionally twitching and making a gargling sound, but even his vocal cords had been locked in place by the near twenty Break Talismans used on him. Gross. He thought to himself. I''m peeing. An unfortunate effect of the body-locking spasms that he was having was that he lost control of his bladder. Well it could always be worse.


    The men, rather professionally, moved in and placed a talisman on him to make sure that the binding persisted, then they picked him up and moved him off, a couple of people kicking him for the sake of their injured comrades. As Laurence was carried off, he just hoped this would not take too long.

 Chapter 61: Oversouls

    The body hit the ground, the slap of meat hitting the cold stone floor echoed out as the flesh sack bounced. As it hit the floor again it landed with a very solid crack, almost completely opposed from the sound before. Peter sighed, the scent was getting stronger, but his prey, his prize, had moved faster and faster since their first encounter in the primeval land. He could only assume that his draining of the souls of so many people was what kept him stuck behind her, but that would soon stop.


    He did not have to stop rending people asunder, really, but he knew the clans looked down on it in the great cities. The process of soul thievery was something that the Mephisto clan kept very tightly under wraps, because of its twofold benefits to them. They did not want word of how powerful their secret skill actually was to get out, to the point where they bound every incoming potential and outgoing branch member with a soul contract that would kill them and wipe them from the cycle of rebirth if they revealed it.


    In the time Peter had been travelling, he had stolen almost a thousand souls. Whether old or young, he had pulled them out of their original homes, then slowly sewn them together, a hundred at a time. Now he had nine souls that would take his place of he ever received enough damage to kill him. Sadly it was still not enough to be considered complete. He knew that the only way to truly become complete would be to gain an Ascendant Immortal soul as a shield, an ?Ascendant Immortal Oversoul?. It would take a hundred Immortal ranked souls to make one, and a hundred Heaven ranked souls to create an Immortal Oversoul. The same was true for the Heaven tier with Saints. It was a long and laborious path, but it was the end goal for every member of the Mephisto family. Every child dreamed of having an indestructible soul. Peter had felt the same way, until he found his target. He needed to possess his target more than anything else in the world. It was his, and he could feel the mana trail that it made from a world away. He just could not catch up. Now, though, he was only ten days away. He could still feel the path that it had taken through the city. It could run, it could hide but he would find it.


    There was no escape from Peter in Spirit. The requirements for the eleventh floor were too steep for his target to achieve. He laughed to himself bitterly at the thought, ¡®Be a Saint of at least ten years of age, or be Heaven ranked¡¯. The former was infuriating to him, at seven and a half years old, while the latter was impossible to him. Even at peak Sainthood, like he was quickly approaching, the gap between knowing everything in a Book and understanding everything in a Book was immense. Generally even a Golden Child would not reach Heaven rank before the age of fifteen.


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    Exiting the dark alley, Peter meandered amongst the bustling crowds of the city as he followed the mana trail, keeping up just enough that it was never too faint for him to follow. He could tell that his target knew he was coming, he didn¡¯t know how, but he assumed that they must have some way of tracking his ill intent. He sighed as he looked at the people rushing about. He would need at least twenty more souls before his tenth Oversoul was complete, and even then he would not be confident about dealing with a more skilled combatant than himself. Comfortable, but not confident.


    With the power of ten Saint Oversouls Peter was assured of catching his target. He just had to find them first. He was tempted to make another Soul Shaking array with the skulls of people nearby him, but he did not think he could get away with such brutal murder. Not without his family being informed.


    If his family was informed before he caught his prize then he would lose it for sure, so he had to be careful. He had to take care around the city because of Sir Robert¡¯s army. There were many men from the Mephisto clan within the bobbies and they might recognise a soul devoured corpse. While them recognising the state of the corpse might not reveal Peter immediately, it would not be too long before he was a prime suspect. This he could not stand.


    He watched as a couple of young men, both in shabby clothing, walked into an alleyway. They seemed to be following a more well dressed girl who had no idea that they were behind her. In Peter¡¯s eyes, they definitely looked like they were up to no good. As they disappeared from sight, Peter upped his pace, and began cracking the joints in his hands. He was going to get three more souls today, then he would call it a rest and begin to assimilate them into the amorphous mass that made up his tenth Oversoul.


    He walked into the alley and looked at the trio that stood in its middle. The young woman looked pleadingly at him as the two men shook her down for anything she might have on her person. When they saw Peter the taller elbowed his friend. ¡°What do we do, Mort?¡± he said.


    ¡°Move along, boy. The less you see of this, the better it is for you.¡±


    Peter smiled. He loved it when people underestimated him. Unfortunately for the woman, and really for the men as well, it simply was not their day.

 Chapter 62: Bobbies

    The two men looked at Laurence. He was in a matte grey room, strapped to a chair and had been there for the last two hours. The bobbies had quickly realised that even the Saint tier Break Talismans did not last as long as they hoped, so they had bound him with a talisman that was Heaven ranked. He could not hear them talk, but every so often they would look at him, talk about something and then turn away. It was an odd experience for him, as even his truesense could not permeate the walls and glass that separated him from the men. He assumed the room was made by the Hephaistia clan before their bizarre disappearance, which was why it rendered him devoid of ability. He simply could not imagine a way that an array could do the same thing.


    Eventually the two men came into the room itself and stared at him. The shorter of the two, a balding man with a stern face, approached Laurence. He pulled up a chair and looked the boy in the eye. ¡°Please state your power level, name, and family line for the record.¡± As the man spoke, an array beneath them crackled into life.


    So the arrays work in the room. I wonder why. Laurence had very little time to consider the question before they would get suspicious, so he answered calmly and in a very measured way, ¡°My rank is Saint, my name is Laurence Absolution, and I am of the lineage of Angus and Maris Absolution.¡±


    The man blinked. He said nothing, but obviously recognised the names that had been given. Unlike everyone else who recognised the name of Laurence¡¯s father, the man did not retreat in any way. He just sat, assessing the possibilities and deciding on the correct path of approach. ¡°You are Law the Young, correct?¡± He said, after three minutes of silence.


    ¡°That''s what you call me. I''m not sure why though. I mean it''s accurate, but my name is just Law, or Laurence.¡±


    ¡°I don''t know either, but I do know we have thirteen warrants for your arrest due to petty theft and larceny. We also now have ten men in the infirmary because of you. Do you have anything to say about that?¡±


    Laurence frowned, ¡°Well, I don''t deny the theft charges, they were my way of earning money to keep living in the city. As for the men in your infirmary, there are no wounds there that won''t heal. I made sure of that when I was breaking my way out.¡±


    ¡°You want me to believe that you went through my men and purposefully incapacitated them without killing them?¡± This was simply too much for the man to believe. He understood that there were monstrous children in the world, but to intentionally only injure people in places that would heal quickly was beyond what he could deal with.


    ¡°No. I want you to believe that with my strength, all of your men surviving should have been impossible, even with the amount of talismans you threw at me.¡± Laurence was deadpan, his face like stone. ¡°I can also fix them if you don''t have any of my clansmen around. I''m not exactly proficient with the Book of Life, but if you get me a few herbs that I can name for you, I can heal them in a way that means they will be fine within two weeks, no matter how bad the injury. Does that sound agreeable?¡±


    The balding man stood up, with a worrisome look on his face. ¡°End recording,¡± he said, before exiting the room. The other man who had been watching the interview quickly took him aside and they began arguing about something. While they argued, Laurence thought over the array that he had seen the man use, the one that had dissipated the moment he had told it to stop recording. It was not that different to the ones he was used to making, he just could not see where the battery was located. Generally speaking, an array would be inscribed on a battery to power it, and then if the array was required to be in a separate place to the battery, you would use an array marker to tether the array to a point far away. This array seemed to not work with that rule though. The more Laurence thought about it, the less the array made sense. The room¡¯s walls and floor were perfectly smooth, there weren¡¯t streams of mana that he could see defining the array. It was like the array was ignoring some of the rules that Laurence had learned about arrays.


    The bald man came back, looking rather angry with someone. Laurence had not really paid any attention to the man as he was far too interested in working out how the array worked, than the outcome of what they decided to do about him.


    ¡°Law, we have spoken in great detail,¡± the man grumbled. ¡°We have decided that we will release you, as long as you take the time to heal the members of my squad that you injured. We will put out word removing you from the wanted list, but that is on the proviso that you stay out of trouble.¡± He peeled the piece of paper that made up the talisman off Laurence¡¯s chest and it immediately decayed before their eyes. The man pulled Laurence onto his feet before guiding him through the door. ¡°You can go once you heal the people downstairs.¡±


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    As Laurence left the room, he noticed long streams of mana covering the outside of the room he was in. His eyes opened wide as he came to a realisation. So that¡¯s how they did it! He realised that the reason why the array worked was because the whole room was a battery for an array, which meant that despite its strange capability to shut down mana inside it, the array could still activate.


    With his curiosity satiated for the moment, the boy followed his captors down to the infirmary and began working. He began by getting the herbs needed for a Malmas Tincture, then mixed a batch up and moved on to more difficult remedies. The big issue for him was that while none of the wounds were life threatening, there were several people with bones that were pulverised beyond repair. He could stimulate bone growth with ease, but the challenge was getting it to set right. As it stood, the bones would regrow, but they likely would not connect, and there would be shards of bone shrapnel in the wounds of every single person who had been heavily injured.


    Laurence knew that he had to heal these people well, as they could become valuable allies to him in future if he played his cards right.


    He grabbed his bag and pulled a few Earth metals out, true forming them into pairs of rings. When he had six pairs, he began inscribing them with a fine blade of mana. Each line of the inscription was perfectly straight, and each glyph that was formed was perfect in shape, thanks to hours of practice that Laurence had made over the last year and a half. Ten minutes later he had six sets of identical steel rings, with a thin black line twisting round the shining metal.


    Taking the rings to the balding man he handed him them and said, ¡°These are Bone setting rings, I found them on my journey up Babel. I never really got any use out of them, and they are only of peak Earth rank, so I don''t mind giving them to you. If a person channels mana into them then the rings will allow the bones of the person wearing them to set properly, no matter how badly they are damaged. The rings will change size if you will it, and can be used on any bone in the human body.¡± He paused, realising something for the first time. ¡°They could likely also be used on corpses to make them look pristine when sending deceased members back to their families. I know that in the army, that can be important.¡±


    For the first time since the two people met, the balding man looked shocked. These rings were an incredible gift, even if they were only of Earth ranking. ¡°Thank... thank you. For a notorious thief, you are not what I expected.¡±


    ¡°You aren''t bad either. I didn''t know what to expect coming in here, but I''m pleasantly surprised as I leave.¡±


    ¡°You really aren''t like those other gang kids, are you? You speak like an adult sometimes, and have focus that no normal child has.¡±


    ¡°Huh. I just try to live by what my daddy taught me. He always says that I should finish what I started, because giving up halfway is a crime to the soul. It''s why no matter what I do, I put my whole being into it.¡±


    ¡°Your father is a wise man.¡± The balding man gave Laurence a soft smile. ¡°My name is Bertrand Mallory, and if you ever need my help for something, just ask for the captain by that name. I will see what I can do to lend a hand.¡±

 Chapter 63: Statues

    An hour later, Laurence was returning to the gang headquarters in Spring Street. Despite everything that happened, he made a healthy habit of not taking the same route back to the base, often doubling back to make sure no one was following him. Eventually he ended up in an area, just three streets away from the base, called the promenade. The promenade was littered with statues in various states of disfigurement and decay, with ivy covering ones further back in the street to the point of near complete obscurity. This was one of Laurence¡¯s favourite places in the entirety of Spirit, there were so many unanswered questions here.


    To Laurence, each statue represented a question, not just ¡®what were you¡¯, or ¡®was that really what you looked like?¡¯. Instead, he wondered why there were statues of these people, and what the statues represented to the people who made them.


    He would walk through the promenade, admiring as he strolled, but he always stopped at a single statue. It was obviously the newest statue there, and consisted of a man and a woman, in each other''s arms. The man was tall and strong, wearing some sort of ceremonial gear, perhaps of an army. The woman was the reverse. It was not to say that she did not look strong, but rather that she was petite, graceful and lithe. He was the earth, and she was the sky to the world that was this statue. The heroic aura of the two together made Laurence want to understand the statue more than ever.


    Every time the boy stared at the statue, he would feel a flash of recognition. The flash would quickly pass, but it left a yearning in him that he could not shift. He wanted to know who these people really were. There was a plaque below the statue with the words ¡°Creole and Grace, The lady hath no greater design.¡± but the phrase meant nothing to Laurence. He knew neither of them from stories, and even their names were comparatively uncommon. In the end, he sighed and moved on. Perhaps one day he would meet Luke again, and he could ask him.


    In the end, he could do nothing about these statues without more information, and so decided to head home. It took him ten more minutes, just to make sure he was not followed, before he reached one of the several entrances to the gang tunnels. Knocking on the door in an odd pattern, Laurence expected to wait for a minute or so before he was vetted and let in, but instead the eye slot slid open and a pair of steel-blue eyes peeked out.


    Looking Laurence over once, the door creaked into life as it too slid open. Inside the door stood Jim, wearing a grin so wide his mouth seemed to cut his head in half. The older boy ushered Laurence inside, then closed the door quietly. The members of Spring Street were always conscientious about the location of their base, as they had a lot of powerful rivals who would enjoy ransacking their home ground, if given the chance.


    ¡°Welcome back! How did you get out? I saw the poster of yours in the main hall after word of you being caught spread around. Thirteen counts of larceny is not something people usually walk away from,¡± Jim said, spitting each sentence out as soon as the previous finished. ¡°Your reward was up to 20 gold shards!¡±


    ¡°Wow!¡± Laurence said. ¡°What''s the rank of the reward then?¡±


    ¡°Sixth highest in gang history. Though you''re only behind the Masked Man in current gang members.¡±


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    ¡°I overtook Orwell?¡± Laurence¡¯s eyes went wide and his jaw dropped. Earlier that day, he had only been tenth on the list of current members. Now only the mysterious leader of the Spring Street Bashers was ahead of him in value. The Masked Man was a character that only Orwell and Nae had actually met. He was a reclusive master thief who used Spring Street as his base of operations. Supposedly if a gang member got enough merits then they would be allowed to meet the leader, but in all other situations he was only ever seen by the Night and Day Masters of the gang.


    Laurence could not help but feel both good and bad about his bounty. For one, the bounty was now moot; thanks to his healing of Bertrand¡¯s men, he was no longer wanted, and so no longer had a price on his head. For another, he knew what his perceived worth was. Unfortunately he was also slightly ashamed. The fact that he was wanted for thirteen crimes meant that he had been identified for all thirteen. There was a saying that went around the gang every so often; the best thief is one that no one has ever heard of. Laurence was annoyed that in the hundred plus missions in the last six months at least a tenth of them he had been discovered over. It was embarrassing.


    He decided not to dwell on the embarrassment and instead went to the mess hall to celebrate his release. He sat with his friends and gossipped about the situation he had gotten in. When people heard that he had escaped by making himself indispensible to the bobbies, people throughout the hall were stunned by the boy. Every so often he would do something that made it seem like he was just another member of the gang, but then occasionally he would do something that would blow their expectations out of the water. Laurence was a true enigma to the gang.


    Across the room, Damien stared at Laurence¡¯s back. The man had long since healed from the wounds he had received from the boy, but he had not healed his hatred. The better Laurence did, the more he despised him, despite the fact that he had no one to blame but himself for his current predicament. After Laurence had defeated him, his place within the gang had dropped considerably. He still had sway over a large amount of the members, but Laurence stood in their eyes as a paragon of strength, while he was a relic of the past. He had spent four whole months dealing with the stares of the people in the gang, taunting him, tormenting him about the fact that he simply was not as strong as a nine year old. He had even punched one of his detractors, nearly killing the boy in question, but it did not ease up. He was considered emotionally weak, and that he could not allow.


    Over the four months that he had been at full strength, he had followed Laurence¡¯s team and spent his time reporting where they would show up, often allowing them to be caught with their trousers down by a few bobbies. When that failed to work, he spent his time trying to garner support from the other people who had been crossed by Laurence, but no one else really hated him. Everyone else respected his strength. Everyone else respected his skill. It made Damien sick to hear it.


    After days of deliberation about what he was going to do, he saw his last plan had not only failed, but made Laurence have more of a name for himself than before. He growled in anger at the sight, crushing the mug in his hand. Brushing off the splinters than were now slightly embedded in his skin, he stood up and walked out of the mess hall. Desperate times called for desperate measures.

 Chapter 64: Paranoia

    Jim was worried. He had spent enough time in deep trouble to know when something was not right. He had developed a healthy sense of paranoia because of it. It kept him alive, and often helped him make more money than he normally should. Because of this sense though, he had an itch that he could not scratch.


    He knew something was wrong. He had known since Laurence was cornered by the bobbies that there was something coming, and it was nothing good. The main reason why he felt this way was two-fold. First, their jobs had gone a lot more smoothly than they had ever gone before. Sure, Laurence had become untouchable by the bobbies around Spring Street, and the desolate strip in general, but this smoothness was unprecedented. The second reason, the one that got Jim¡¯s hackles up most, was that the most vicious of Laurence¡¯s enemies had all gone to ground. The six men and women, led by Damien the brute, had all completely disappeared from the Spring Street premises. They said it was because they were planning the biggest job that they had ever done, but Jim was suspect.


    It seemed more like rats leaving a sinking ship to him. They had left as quickly and as quietly as possible, and when Jim broke into their chests in the sleeping hall, he found them empty. No one emptied their chest. Not even when they moved up to a private room. They just took the chest with them and the chest in the hall was replaced.


    Everything that had happened screamed for Jim to be suspicious, because no one acted the way Damien¡¯s troupe had unless there was a reason for it. He just could not see what they were planning.


    In the end, he decided to go to Orwell and ask for advice. If the night manager did not know what to do, then Jim would give in to his paranoia and simply go to ground. If he did know, then Jim would help in whatever capacity he could.


    Jim paced up and down the hallway outside Orwell¡¯s room for a good five minutes, still seriously considering giving in to his itch, but after a lot of thought he knocked on the door. He waited, and waited, and just as he was about to leave, the sound of locks unlocking and a deadbolt sliding open echoed from behind the thick, wooden door. A very bleary eyed leader of the Bashers answered the door. When Orwell saw Jim, he mumbled something incoherent about sleep and ushered the boy in.


    The room was odd. It was a simple room, hewn into the rock like most of the rooms in the base. There were three very simple light arrays set up in the ceiling to offer varied levels of ambience in the room, as well as two water arrays and a chilling array. One water array gave a small stream of variable temperatures and the other sat in an alcove and only belched out warm water. In comparison, just the amenities of the room were quite extravagant.


    The thing that made the room odd was its state of clutter. Around the bed there were clothes and bags and various tools strewn everywhere that could be seen. There was only a small outline of a human within the clutter where Orwell obviously slept. On the other hand, the rest of the room was perfectly clean. Jim could not help but imagine Orwell as a dragon, sleeping on its hoard when he saw the bed. It was the first thing that had made him actually smile for days.


    As Orwell made himself a drink from some leaves of a plant that Jim did not recognise and hot water, the younger boy say on the floor and began talking. ¡°Orwell, I know you probably don''t like getting woken up in the mornings, but something is very wrong right now. I couldn''t take it to Nae because she would definitely fly off the handle, and Laurence would listen to me but not really understand why I''m so worried right now.¡± He paused, fiddling with one of the many strange devices near Orwell¡¯s bed. ¡°I''m not sure how, but I think Damien the Brute and his team have betrayed us.¡±


    Orwell spat out his drink when he heard that. There were occasionally times when people with grudges would levy the betrayal charge at their enemies, and it was usually investigated before being summarily ignored, but this time Orwell was having difficulty believing Jim was lying. Generally speaking, the betrayal charge was one that was declared in public, so even if the target was cleared of the charge, there would still be great suspicion of them by the general masses. It was a calculated manoeuvre when someone hated their rival, or enemy, enough that they think the best choice of action is to get them ostracised from the community.


    ¡°Why do you think that?¡± Orwell said, quickly waking up.


    ¡°Okay, so it doesn''t seem like much, but for the last couple of days I have been feeling really nervous about something, to the point of paranoia. When I get like this, I know something bad is going to happen.¡±


    ¡°Like prophecy?¡±


    ¡°No, it''s a... danger sense I guess.¡± Jim put the toy down and looked at Orwell. ¡°I looked into it, even broke into their trunks, and found some things that don''t add up. Damien made a big deal about planning some big heist, but it looks more like he''s gone to ground rather than gone to case some big house. Their trunks are empty, for one thing. That never happens.¡±


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    Orwell swore. ¡°Look, I''m not going to jump to conclusions because you''ve actually looked into things before you called betrayal, but we can check it out.¡± He took a sip of his drink before continuing. ¡°First, we look into the claimed logs. If his claim is bogus, then that should completely sway me. If not, then we will dig deeper. Maybe we can ask people about the Brute''s team, see if anyone let anything slip. Deal?¡±


    ¡°Deal.¡±


    Orwell quickly donned some clothing and they moved to the claimant hall. This hall¡¯s role was three-fold. First, it contained a map of the desolate strip, with road names and buildings on it. This was used to stake claims on, with small flags. The general rule was that if there was already a flag on a place, you avoided the place. Second, there was the message board. Pinned to it were, on average, twenty messages about bobby patrols, wanted posters, and occasional updates about the status of the gang. The third use for the claimant hall was the trading board. A large message board at the far end of the room was literally covered with notes about items and trinkets that people had but did not need. If anyone had an interest in a certain trinket, then they could look at the trading board and discover if there were any people willing to trade it for something. This entire room was reminiscent of a claimant hall of a large guild, so there were many people in the gang who wondered who in the history of Spring Street had the nerve to steal from one.


    When Jim and Orwell arrived in the claimant hall, the place was quiet. This early in the morning there were next to no people around, as everyone in the headquarters would be asleep, and the people who weren''t were on jobs. They walked over to the map and began checking each flag placed on the table. Upon each flag were the initials of the leaders of the various teams, with a small wax tablet attached to the side of the table that could be used as a key.


    Jim immediately began scouring the map, looking at each flag individually to find the DTB initials that he knew would either prove, or falsify his claims. As he did, Orwell ran his fingers down the wax tablet, hunting for Damien¡¯s name. He reached the end of the list long before Jim had looked at all the flags, and when he did he looked up at the boy, a slight frown creasing his forehead.


    ¡°Jim,¡± he said, ¡°Damien¡¯s name isn''t here.¡±


    ¡°I don''t need his name, I know the initials. DTB. If we can find the flag, then we might find out where they are.¡± Jim began searching with renewed fervour.


    ¡°No, you''ve missed the point. They''ve removed their name from the list of active teams. Damien has left Spring Street.¡± Orwell¡¯s voice was not the normal jovial sound that Jim recognised, there was a hint of anger in it that completely changed the way Orwell spoke. ¡°We need to get word out, I have a really bad feeling about this.¡±


    They moved off to the mess hall, where there were a few members of the gang sitting, most resting from a job well done. When they entered the room, Orwell pulled the attention of everyone there and sent them off to different parts of their base, to get everyone into the mess hall, and to notify the gate keepers that night. As people woke, word spread like wildfire. Someone had betrayed the clan. The halls echoed with the sounds, as well as the shuffle of people moving about. Eventually, a crowd had gathered within the mess hall, and surrounded the two faces of the Spring Street Bashers.


    ¡°What''s this about?¡± Nae whispered to Orwell.


    ¡°I''ll tell you in a second,¡± Orwell whispered back. He turned, slowly looking every person he could in the eye, before climbing onto a table. ¡°Ladies and gentlemen, I apologise for disturbing your regular rest with some awful news. There has been a betrayal amongst us.¡±


    The gasp of the crowd broke Orwell¡¯s measured pause for effect. ¡°I do not say this lightly,¡± he continued, ¡°but there are several people here who have been at a head with the accused before, and know how vicious he is. I can only assume that his hatred for everyone in the clan has reached a point where being one of the most powerful and respected individuals in the gang is no longer good enough. That''s right, the person, no, the people who have betrayed us are the crew of Damien the Brute.


    ¡°Now before you start clamouring amongst yourselves about the validity of this claim, I would like to raise our key pieces of evidence. First, all their belongings have been removed from their chests, but the chests have not been taken. Second, the name of the crew has been removed from the annals within the claimant hall. Third, they left the gang around two days ago, making a large deal or of a big score; and Fourth, the entire crew left to case a building. Six people are simply not needed to do that.¡±


    Orwell got off the stage and then looked at Nae. ¡°Pass the word around, Damien is black-listed.¡±

 Chapter 65: The Festival Of The Dead (1)

    The night became day, and day became night again, as the gang waited with baited breath for Damien¡¯s revenge. Damien was well known enough that the majority of people in the gang had gotten in his bad side at one point or another. They knew he did not forgive and forget, but instead believed in retribution for the slightest infraction.


    This had not stopped people from wanting to work with him, however. He was horrible, arrogant, and downright dangerous at points, but he was excellent at his job. Despite his bulky frame, he was one of the best members of the gang at stealth and reconnaissance. Coupling that with his immense strength meant he was well wanted by many people, even with his unfortunate character defects.


    No matter where Jim looked, the members of Spring Street shared his sense of paranoia. It was more comforting than he would have liked to admit, knowing he was not alone in this terror. Unfortunately, they still had no idea what Damien had planned. No matter who tried, the members of Spring Street were being shut out. The death knell was ringing for the gang, and no one wanted to be part of it.


    He sat in his room, fiddling around with his purple leather-bound book. It was the only real memento of his family he had left. When his father was lucid, he often said that it was the only thing that the elders of the clan could not take away from them. Caesars are strong, he would often say, but even the strongest Caesar cannot deny another the path to Order.


    He had read parts of the book hundreds of times, but only since he met Laurence had Jim wanted to complete his first full reading. He knew what the book was, he had known for a long time, but he was scared that by completing his first reading, by becoming a Saint of Order, he might begin the transformation into his father. That was what scared him most.


    Finally, after much deliberation, he opened the book and began to read in earnest. He knew that he would be behind the best of the other people in his age group, but if he could complete the path to Sainthood in a couple of years, then he would still be able to hold himself up with pride. He hoped that beyond everything else, the clan would allow him a small amount of pride, even if he was his father''s son.


    He read and read, turning page after page, and quickly lost track of time. The book had so much information, more than he could actually take in at any one time, but he sat, processed and kept reading. Eventually, he closed the purple book. He had read enough. It was time for him to build upon his knowledge. He sat in the middle of his room, legs crossed and arms spread wide, with rich tendrils of mana spreading through his entire person. With each breath he would draw in a large amount of mana through his nose and let it flow through his body. This flow of mana would collect in his hands, head and abdomen, forming a spiral that centred around his heart. With each rotation of the spiral, his body became more suffused with mana, became stronger, and came closer to Sainthood. The Spiral Breath Formation was the one that his family used, because the spiral shape was so important to their cultivation path. The perfect spiral was in all things, artists and mathematicians called it the golden ratio. Some people said it did not exist, but the Caesar family knew better, they knew that this ratio, this spiral; it was the key to understanding the fundamental order in all things.


    His understanding of this spiral deepened with each breath, as did his understanding of control, and order, until something inside him seemed to coalesce. The spiral shrank inside him and slowly started to solidify, before morphing in shape. Two thin strips slipped from the sides of the spiral, and the solidified gem of mana began to turn into a beautiful crystal diadem. It was not what he was expecting, but the form of his soul was surprisingly reminiscent of the symbol of the Caesar clan.


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    As his soul condensed into physical form, there was a burst of energy that rippled through his and the surrounding rooms. He had surprised himself, he assumed that it would take him months longer to actually become a saint, but here he was, becoming what he knew he might hate. He thought back to Laurence, how the boy seemed perfectly happy with his status, and was content with himself. He was still not entirely comfortable, because he had seen that cultivation had got his father nowhere but the bottom of a bottle, but he was willing to give it a go. After all, it would give him an edge.


    He closed the book and lay down in bed, sighing at the comfortable sensation in his body. He was so comfortable that he ignored the sounds outside his room. He could hear shouts and yelling of an indeterminate origin, but could do nothing but relax into a light sleep. About half hour later, Jim woke from his slumber, with a thin layer of grime around him and thoroughly stuck to his clothing, but his flesh was as soft as a newborn baby¡¯s.


    His body felt like it was floating, and he could vaguely hear something happening around him, his natural response to this was panic, so tried to rouse himself from the situation he was in. His eyes opened wide as there was a crash against the door in his room, shards of wood splintered off across the room, and the body of the door shook. There was another crack as the door gave in, the hinges tearing free from the frame itself. In the doorway stood a man, maybe nineteen or twenty years old, with a devilish look on his face. He frowned at the young boy on the bed in front of him and muttered ¡°I thought there were supposed to be girls here. Oh well, sometimes a boy is just as good.¡±


    Jim propelled himself back as far as his body would allow him. He was still in that odd half-asleep state, but it was fading; he simply felt like his body was covered in pins and needless. As his back hit the wall, he froze. There was nowhere else to retreat. All his exits were behind the man who was quickly cornering him.


    ¡°Come now, I''m a Saint, this will only be painful for a little while. I promise your death will be quick after I''m done.¡± The man pulled a knife out from his belt and levered towards Jim. He could smell his rank breath and tanned leather in far greater detail than he had any wish to. Focusing on the small details helped, but soon nothing would.


    There''s no cure for being dead, Jim, he thought to himself. He knew he had to do something, but the man was a Saint. If he wanted to win, then he would have to accept who he was, truly give in to becoming a Caesar. He did not know if he was ready to do so, but he knew he had no other choice.


    Growling, he looked the man in the eyes, summoned his diadem and yelled ¡°Stop!¡± putting the entire force of his being into the command, as well as a sizeable chunk of his mana. Blood began fleeing from his nose, and slightly from his ears, as he stared at the man, now thoroughly stopped by Jim''s command. He laughed. He had been a Caesar for all of five seconds, and had already broken the cardinal rule of the Caesars, Do not order, shift order instead.


    Jim could see the man''s mind, he could see his wants, his dreams and his priorities. And he could change them. This was the power of the book of order, it did not affect the physical, but instead it changed the order of things. Jim has recklessly forced an action that was contrary to the man''s priorities, causing a backlash that nearly rendered him comatose. He had stopped the man, but he knew he had one more thing to do. The man had to die.

 Chapter 66: The Festival Of The Dead (2)

    Laurence was awake from the moment the base was breached. Long ago, he had put small arrays on each door, to notify him when any of the entrances were forced open. He had never thought that they would actually come into use, but he had used some sort of warning system at the entrance of his sleeping areas since he was in the primeval first floor. These had not necessarily saved his life, but they had allowed him to avoid many a rude awakening in the form of unwanted animal attention.


    He dressed and began to move towards the breach. The sounds of people yelling and crying echoed through the tunnels of the Spring Street Bashers while he ran, but he had yet to see anyone. There was something going horribly wrong in the gang today. Finally, as he worked his way towards the breach he began coming across small bulwarks, prepared for when whoever was fighting needed to retreat back into the base. The bulwarks were rather slipshod, but over recent days there had been practice setting them up, so they were efficiently placed if nothing else.


    Laurence sprinted down a corridor, leaping over the crates and sandbags set up at random intervals through the tunnel. After a couple minutes of solid running he came across the back lines of the battle going on. Through the three offshoot tunnels people were beginning to be pushed back. No matter where Laurence looked, he could see the desperate faces of people trying to protect their home. All these people, children and adults alike had nowhere else to go, and so would fight to protect the little that they had.


    This can¡¯t go on... Laurence thought to himself. He had to do something, this place was his too. This time he could not lose himself though. If he had lost against the maelstrom snake while he was berserking everything else would suffer. He got lucky last time, and he realised that, so he steeled his mind and began looking around for someone who knew what was going on.


    Grabbing a person who seemed to be leading the recovery effort, he looked at the boy, who was only a few years older than him, and asked, ¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±


    ¡°There¡¯s someone invading the caverns. Help us! The left side path has more people in it, but it¡¯s the one being pushed back most. The people attacking us seem to be putting all their fighters there for some reason. The other two paths have a small attacking force.¡± The boy looked around, at the people being pulled out of the paths due to injury and then back at Laurence. Realising who he was for the first time the boy asked, ¡°You¡¯re Laurence right? I know you¡¯re strong. Could you go down the left path so we lose less people down there. We can¡¯t hold it with the amount of people we have at the moment.¡±


    Laurence thought for a moment. He personally would have put himself in one of the less populated paths, so he could cut the enemy off and flank them, but this was not his battlefield, so he nodded and ran down the left path. He jumped over bodies that had been put placed out in the path, many men and children who were simply too injured to recover, or who had wounds that meant that they could not be moved. It was a bitter path, but it did not faze Laurence. Around ten seconds after leaving the boy in command, he arrived at the bank that was serving as a back for the gang to defend from. He could see the mass of bodies that made up the fray, and saw as the people in front of him were being pushed back. He knew the only thing he could do was pull his hammer out and stand his ground. He had tried to avoid killing since he had joined the gang. He had been told that it would cause problems with the bobbies if they caught on, so he had been avoiding it, but now was not the time for kindness. His home was being invaded and it was time to heed the call to arms.


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    Pulling the hammer out of his bag, he slowly pushed forward, through the crowd, until he reached the front lines. He smiled as he saw the front layer of combat, and felt his pulse raise in a way the thievery simply could not perform. He knew that the calm would be coming soon, so he steeled himself and raised his hammer. He pushed forward once more and immediately began cleaving his great weight from side to side.


    Bodies began crumpling in front of Laurence, and the weight was quickly lifted off the front lines, but still Laurence did not stop. Every third or fourth swing he would take a step forward and shake off the flecks of blood that covered his hammer. His body was slowly being covered in blood as well, but he could not shake it off his skin and clothes as easily as he could his hammer. To the members of Spring Street he was a blood soaked angel of vengeance, but to the attackers he was like a demon that had come from the abyss to end them. He was the grim reaper incarnate, and with each swing of his hammer, he would reap a life. He seemed unstoppable, and the momentum of the battle seemed to be shifting in the direction of Spring Street.


    He pushed the troupe back and back, past some of the ransacked store rooms, passed the hallway that contained Jim¡¯s bedroom, all the way back to the Colosseum where he had taken the test to join the gang. In the room there were people from the attacking troupe, and one man, who was sitting in the middle of the stage. He commanded the area with his presence alone, even though he had his eyes closed and he seemed to be in some sort of meditative state. Dotted around the room were other men and women, of varying ages, but all of them wore the same uniform. It was a simple grey dogi, with a red belt around their waist. The man on the stage wore something that echoed the uniform, but his was far more ornate than the plain clothes of his companions.


    Realising that a crowd of people had just entered, the man opened his eyes. He scanned the crowd and pointed at Laurence. ¡°You, boy. You¡¯re Law, aren¡¯t you? I was sent here to kill you. Do you have anything to say about that?¡±


    ¡°Not really,¡± Laurence replied. ¡°I mean you can try, but I wouldn¡¯t hold my breath if I were you. Many others had tried, including a giant snake.¡±


    ¡°A challenger, eh? Well, I guess you¡¯re a golden child as well.¡± He stood up, and placed his hands together. ¡°Come, fight me. I have always wanted to fight one of you kids, to see if you are worth the danger that us normal challengers have to experience when climbing because of you.¡±


    Laurence hopped onto the stage and pointed his hammer at the man. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to take your weapon out to fight me?¡±


    ¡°Why should I fight you with a weapon? I¡¯m better with my fists anyway.¡± The man let his hands fall by his sides, and smiled. ¡°Come. If you¡¯re good enough I might even spare your life.¡±

 Chapter 67: The Festival Of The Dead (3)

    Peter could feel the cries of the dying within the city. There were four or five every day, but tonight he could feel that there were far more than usual. He knew that something big was happening, and that tonight might be his best chance to complete his tenth Oversoul. It was a risk, but if he played his cards right he could take as many souls as necessary without being caught. The issue he was having was that he did not know whether he should go towards the mess and harvest from there to add to the mayhem, or to go as far away as reasonable to split the focus of the bobbies.


    He walked out of the house he was staying in, leaving the occupiers of the building in peace for the first time, even if they were more like objects than people. Over the week he has been staying, he had practiced his fine control over his power by draining the very essence of life out of the people who had lived there. In the end he had left a sobbing flesh-table, a chair and two stools out of what used to be a happy family. The Book of Death claimed that the people he has done this to would have around a fifty percent chance of recovery, but Peter simply did not care. He often wondered why people would make such a great deal out of the lives of mortals. They were all going to return to the cycle of rebirth soon enough, so it baffled him as how could anyone consider their lives of value.


    He walked down an alley and into the main road, where there were markets set up, and a through fare that allowed quick passage on animals and their riders. Passing one of the fruit stalls, he withered the nearby post that held the stall up and caught an apple from the collapsing stand. The less life in the object, the easier it was to affect. This was why he had chosen a family of normal people to experiment and practice on. He knew that they had less life force in them than even an Earthen practitioner, but they still had enough life to give him a small challenge.


    He took a bite out of the apple and mulled over the choices he had to make. Did he just go for completion of his tenth Oversoul, or did he go for more? He had no idea how many deaths he would be able to get away with, but he could feel the deaths of around a hundred people nearby, and if Peter could feel it, then the bobbies definitely knew.


    Peter took another bite of the apple, enjoying the flavour and crunch, before deciding on making a separate site to work on. He would draw some of the bobby attention away, and try to go for not only his tenth Oversoul, but his eleventh as well. The massacre would be dangerous, but Peter truly believed that he was untouchable by anyone who wished to harm him but also had a conscience. If they decided to kill him, then the souls he used to guard would block for him and shatter in his place. He also knew that the souls themselves were not permanently contained within him. He could, in theory, release the souls of certain people, but he could not think of a reason why he would want to. It would make him categorically weaker, which was against everything he had worked for. He still needed strength, strength to gain everything he wanted, and then strength to keep it when he got it. Peter was no idiot. He knew how the world worked, that had been drilled into him from birth. He had to fight to get where he was, and he would be damned if anyone was going to take what was his from him.


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    He smiled to himself and threw the apple away, draining the life from it as it left his hand. He knew that in theory, he could survive on life essence alone, and that many of his family members did, but food was far too tasty to give up. If anyone had watched the apple, they would have seen the fruit decay in midair. It went from a bright red, crisp apple into a mouldy mess in a matter of moments, before quickly decaying into dust as it hit the ground.


    Peter strode with purpose towards one of the seedier parts of the executioners pen. The area was filled with battle crazed papers. No one knew why, but the people around Panwood Lane were known for being prone to combat and quick to anger, which was perfect for Peter''s plan. The inhabitants of the area had a natural affinity for mana, but their comprehension of the laws that made up the world was lacking, so rarely achieved anything higher than Saint. The vast majority were filled with Earthen souls that were perfect for Peter¡¯s consumption.


    Panwood Lane was not the only ¡®hot spot¡¯ in Spirit, nor was it even the only one in the executioners pen. It was simply the most numerous. The place was perfect for Peter''s plan, with its tight quarter paths, thin walls, and heavily overpopulated living areas. The slightest strange sound, like silence from twenty or thirty people who had always been loud would set others on edge. It would make people panic and hide, adding to the silence. Some would brave the strange silence, but when Peter killed them they would simply add to the fear.


    He walked down the Blade, the high street of the pen, and looked at the faces of the people he passed. He wondered how many of these people would be alive tomorrow. The thought of how many people he would personally end made him shiver with delight, and almost salivate. He could not wait.


    The boy looked like a junkie about to get his next fix, eyes wide, mouth drooping, hands twitching slightly, but uncontrollably. It was not pretty, and when people realised that there was something wrong with him he began receiving a wide berth. This shook him out of his stupor, and he walked into an alley to calm down. He needed to be in the best shape before he began his harvest, as well as completely inconspicuous.


    Finally Peter emerged, immediately moving off towards Panwood Lane. It was time for the people to join him in eternity. He was so excited.

 Chapter 68: The Festival Of The Dead (4)

    Laurence swung his hammer down with all his power, and watched as the man in the ornate dogi dodged with ease. This was the first time in actual combat he had met anyone who could keep up with him. It was more exhilarating than the boy would have liked to admit, but the last twenty seconds had been some of the most incredible exchanges of the boy''s short life.


    Each of his strikes was parried or dodged with only the most crisp of movements, then followed with a strike that would knock Laurence down.


    Laurence always stood up, and realised after the third knock down that the man was not doing any lasting damage to him. He had no idea why, but it seemed like the man was loath to kill him.Perhaps I have a chance after all, he thought. If only I could actually hit him. He swung his hammer again, as ineffectually as before, and watched as the man dodged again. He continued his swing, and let the momentum of the blow flow into the next strike, a wide swing to the man¡¯s waist.


    The man span out of the way, allowing the momentum of the hammer to drag it past him. He raised his fist and smacked it into Laurence¡¯s jaw. Laurence felt the fist connect, and watched the world spin. He had difficulty withstanding the impacts of the strikes, but he never took any real damage.


    This time was different. He tried to stand, as he had ten times before, but his vision swam and his body betrayed him. His legs gave way and his knees hit the floor. It was infuriating, because he could tell that he was stronger than the man in front of him. He was faster, and his weapons were better, yet still he could not even touch the man. Now he could not stand properly, and he had no idea why.


    ¡°You know a lot about fighting,¡± said the man, ¡°but you know nothing about combat.¡± As Laurence finally got his feet from under him, he received another strike to his jaw, sending him flying once more. ¡°I can tell you''ve fought a lot, but only with people of far weaker strength, or equal skill.¡±


    ¡°H... how?¡± Laurence stammered, blood bubbling out of his mouth with the words.


    ¡°Simple. I can beat you. I can tell that any of your strikes would likely kill me if they connected, but you have no way of forcing me to be struck by one. You have no battle plan, no form, and you really aren''t one with your weapon. All you really have is a half formed slaughter intent, and even that''s subpar.¡± He paused. Looking at the pathetic boy on the floor, he wondered if this was worth it. ¡°How old are you?¡±


    ¡°Eight...¡± Laurence forced out. His body still was not responding, and he could faintly hear the voice in the back of his head. It was useless though. Giving in to the voice now would get him nothing.


    ¡°By the lady... Eight years old and already at this level.¡± The man shook his head. ¡°That''s what''s truly frightening about the golden children. By the time you''re my age, you''ll probably be a peak Heaven ranked challenger. That''s actually disgusting. Boy, my name is Alistair Bournex Dominus. If you ever feel like you''re of a high enough skill level where you can beat me then you can find me at the Empty Throne school of combat.¡± He sighed, ¡°I wouldn''t even be here if my younger brother did not have gambling debts with that Damien boy. Seriously, go to a school of combat. There are many in Spirit, and you will become much stronger if you go.¡±


    Damien! When Laurence heard that name he almost lost control. This was all his fault, the tension, the invasion, the loss of life, even Laurence¡¯s defeat was his fault. He swore that he would get his revenge the moment he could move again. ¡°Aren''t you...¡± He began. His jaw ached, and his brain would not stop hammering away at the insides of his skull. It was not a pleasant experience, and as such he was finding it hard to focus on anything. ¡°Afraid of me... trying to get revenge?¡±


    ¡°Revenge for you being beaten and shamed by me? Why would I? Sometimes the only way to get stronger is to lose, and better you lose now, to someone who might kill a midget, but would never kill a child, than to someone with absolutely no qualms.¡± Alistair smiled. ¡°And hey, perhaps of you learn a few things, then you might put up a better fight next time.¡± He looked at one of the women by the arena. ¡°Call back the rest of the students, we''re leaving. Damien and the Arrows can fend for themselves. I am done doing someone else''s dirty work.¡±


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    It was at that moment when a man in the same kind of dogi as Alistair¡¯s cohorts walked into the room. He had a far away look and a rictus grin on his face, and a young boy followed behind him with a thick stream of blood coming out of his nose and covering his mouth. He had a look of pure hatred in his eyes as he glanced at the man, and then m a look of shock at the state of Laurence on the floor.


    ¡°What happened?¡± He said, running over to the boy lying in a pool of his own blood, spit and sweat.


    ¡°Hey Jim,¡± Laurence said. He was quickly getting his bearings back, but as he began standing up it was obvious that movement was still a struggle. ¡°You''ve got blood on you.¡±


    ¡°Back at you. How''d this happen?¡± It was difficult to notice, but Laurence could see there was something very different about Jim. Normally he was an incredibly steady handed person, but now he was very slightly shaking, and his eyes had a slightly glassy feeling about them.


    ¡°I lost a fight. I didn''t actually think it was possible for me to lose to anyone but my daddy. Turns out I was wrong.¡± Laurence laughed weakly.


    ¡°If that will be all, my students and I will be leaving,¡± said Alistair. He ushered everyone in the grey dogi together and began walking out.


    ¡°Stop. Francis is not leaving, are you Francis?¡± Said Jim. The man who Jim had walked in with stopped and turned round, with that same grin on his face. ¡°Why aren''t you leaving Francis? Tell them what you did.¡±


    ¡°I lied to my companions.¡± The man, Francis, said.


    ¡°What else?¡±


    ¡°I killed and defiled the corpses of four people before arriving at you.¡± The faces of his companions paled. Alistair was no different. He made a big deal about the morals of his students. The fact that someone had slipped by him worried him greatly, and caused him to look at the rest of his students, wondering what else he had missed.


    ¡°How old were they?¡± Jim''s eyes smouldered with small flames of hatred and disgust.


    ¡°There were two teenage girls, a young girl, and a young boy.¡± The sound of his declaration echoed throughout the hall, as clear as day. The place was silent, but Alistair was breathing heavily. He was angrier than he had ever been before, to the point where a vein was visible, bulging against his forehead.


    Jim walked up to Francis and stared him in the eyes. Blood began trickling out of his nose again as he reached into his boot and pulled out a small knife. The blade was about three inches long, and incomparably firm. It was a gift from Laurence for introducing Yun, Louisa, and himself into the gang. The blade was extremely sharp, and had a lightning element, thanks to the fact it was made from maelstrom snake bone.


    Jim handed the knife to Francis and said, ¡°Cut your own head off with this.¡± Francis immediately took the knife and, still smiling, jammed the blade into his throat. Without stopping, he began sawing away at his neck and blood started to spray out, arcing over Jim as he stood beneath the man.


    One of the women in the group gagged as she saw this, and ran into the far hallway. A younger member of the troupe began crying silently, unable to hold back his terror, and Alistair simply looked away. They were all used to death and fighting, but there was something profoundly distressing about watching a man saw through his own throat.


    The blade crunched as it passed through Francis'' adam''s apple, making quick work of the cartilage and tendons. Once it was clear of his trachea, he fell to his knees like a puppet with its strings cut. Blood continued to pump out in droves, and his face had taken on a positively pallid colour. His arm fell as it lost all sensation thanks to the lack of blood. He pitched himself forwards, determined to cut his own head off with his body-weight, if not his arms.


    Seconds later he was dead. Blood pooled around his quickly cooling form as Jim looked on with disgust and Laurence looked on passively. Finally Jim broke, he curled up into a ball and began crying. All that could be heard was the sound of one boy crying, and the other repeatedly saying ¡°It had to be done... It had to be done...¡±

 Chapter 69: The Festival Of The Dead (5)

    Within an hour, the force had been completely exorcised from the tunnels. The army summoned by Damien had done terrible damage to Spring Street, but it was not completely irreparable. Unfortunately the loss of life was harder to fix. For many, the recovery effort was a painful thing to watch. There were hundreds of corpses and no real way of clearing the bodies on such a scale. To Orwell, who had saved Nae¡¯s life during the mayhem and lost an eye in the process, the only option was to call in the Mephisto clan. He was loath to do it, but saw no other option.


    Generally speaking, people would remove their own dead and bury or cremate the corpse, but if a situation occurred where there were no living relatives of the deceased, then they would be given to the Mephistos. This was what people were terrified of. If they were given to the Mephisto clan, then they had no idea what might happen to their corpse. The clan simply would not say why they needed so many corpses.


    Laurence had a theory about why they needed the corpses, but it did not make much sense to him generally. He assumed that they were rending the bodies into their six crafting parts; fluid, core, binding agent, hide, twine, and ore. These six parts were what any single object could be refined down into without wasting anything, but generally speaking no one would try. Using the corpse of a human was simply too creepy for most people.


    Laurence was the opposite. He did not mind using the corpse of a person to craft something, in fact he saw it as no different to what he had done to the Orik, or the snake. His issue was that what he assumed the Mephisto clan were doing was combining hundreds of the same kind of tier of human, to emulate one of a higher tier. Their reasoning was sound. The process was something that one could do with any material, and the Book of Creation even had a term for it. It was known as using quantity to emulate quality, and was something that the Book advised against using. The issue with the process was that no matter how many times you did it, the refined material would never be equal to one that was naturally of the same grade. After all, the created material was simply an emulation.


    The only rumours about corpse desecration that were more terrifying to the general populace were those that were about Avalonians. The Kimbramancers could supposedly keep a person from ever returning to the cycle of reincarnation, but the no one had ever heard anything to substantiate that the rumour was anything other than hearsay. No one was really willing to anger the ruling class of Avalon to check, especially when the result could be so terrifying.


    Around an hour after the cleanup had begun, Orwell made a call, and an old man with grey hair showed up. He had an aura of decay about him that put most people on edge. When Yun saw the man, he scurried off to his room and refused to come out until the old man had left. It was not the same kind of fear that Yun had shown when he first arrived in Spirit, but instead of the pure dread he had felt then, it was more like the existence of the man set his teeth on edge.


    The only people unaffected by the man were Laurence and Jim. Since Francis had killed himself, Jim had become extremely withdrawn. The boy would barely acknowledge the existence of anyone. It was understandable, when people thought about what he had gone through. The thing no one understood was how Laurence was fine. He had gone through almost everything Jim had, and had been severely beaten on top of that. He was an enigma to the majority of Spring Street, and his ability to ignore the old man''s cloying presence was a simple reminder of that.


    The transaction between Orwell and the old man was completed relatively quickly, with the bodies being removed by the end of the day. As the old man left, he handed Orwell a bag, claiming it was a payment for product given. Orwell had wanted to refuse, but when he saw how much money was inside the bag, he sighed and ignored his morals. The loss of hands would heavily impact the gang¡¯s income for years to come, and the damage done to the base was no small problem either. The gang needed the money to survive, no matter how dirty Orwell felt for taking it.


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    People knew that the repairs to the base would take weeks, but no one was willing to begin that day. As Laurence walked around the corridors and through the halls, he surveyed everything. He looked at the broken down doors, blood-splattered walls, and clumps of rock in a state of confusion. Like the situation with Rosie¡¯s Demise, he liked the place. He had been living there for a long time now, and seeing it destroyed, seeing his home destroyed to such a state made the voice bubble up again.


    He wanted revenge.


    Eventually he found himself in the claimant hall. The map of the desolate strip showed many things, one of which was the regions that all the different gangs had control over. In the strip alone there were close to twenty gangs, but of those there were only four that could compete with Spring Street. The biggest rival was the Rodah Vale Arrows, a group of thieves who specialised in fast jobs. Coming from the Vale of Rodah, the gang would often describe themselves as quicker than an arrow in flight, and had an incredibly high job completion rate because of their speed.


    The Arrows and Spring Street had never gotten on, because of how opposed their targets often were. Members of Spring Street would describe the Arrow hits as low hanging fruit, or easy pickings, and the Arrows would often retort by calling the members of Spring Street show offs or madmen. The name calling and mutual scorn did not lend itself well to the two groups being amicable, and Damien¡¯s intervention, with the additional knowledge of the entrance to their hideout, ignited that hatred to new levels. The problem for Laurence was that he did not know where to go to get into the base of the Arrows.


    In all likelihood the base would be in the middle of their area of control, but there was no way for him to know for sure. At least not by looking at the map. In the end, all he could do was take note of their regions of preferred work, and hunt one of their gang members down. He had learned a lot in the time he was a member of Spring Street. Many things were to do with thievery, or skills that he could not learn from the Book, but one thing in particular was the strange actions he had encountered in Cie¡¯Awll. He had learned that what the man, Adrigal, was actually trying to do to him. The more he thought about how they had attempted to torture him, the more he realised that his response truly was an eye for an eye. Just because he was not affected by it did not mean no one had been. That said, he also realised how useful torture could be in gleaning information, so he would not hesitate to pull the location out of a member of the gang he now despised.


    He walked up to his room and grabbed his bag, as well as a few small tools he might need for torture. In combat it might be better to fight with invisible weapons, like the ones he made with mana, but in torture the more the victim knew was coming, the quicker they would break. On the way out of his room he bumped into Orwell, who had obviously been waiting for him.


    ¡°Law,¡± he said, ¡°I think you''re about to do something pretty insane, and if I am right in my assumption, also something you do not want coming back to you in future.¡± He paused, handing Laurence a bag about the size of the boy''s head. His normally jovial face hardened, ¡°This is a secret of the gang, one that I am loath to reveal, but think I must. Wear that and enact vengeance upon our foes. The people who died were our family, and blood repays blood.¡±


    ¡°Yes,¡± Laurence said simply, before walking towards the exit. Once he got out of sight of everyone he knew, he opened the bag. Inside was a white mask with the insignia of the gang on it, a blue triangle with two curves cutting through it. He smiled and put it on, before walking into the night.

 Chapter 70: The Festival Of The Dead (6)

    The man screamed. This masked madman had pulled him into an alley and asked him about his gang, when he refused to talk the man bound him in a rope made of something that looked like fire, and pulled him into a nearby house. At first there were beatings, spattered with questions asking him what he knew, where the base was, what he knew about the leader of the gang. That was bearable. Even when they broke his rib with a punch, it was still bearable.


    Then the masked demon began on his hands. He was a thief, and his hands were his life, they were what put bread on the table, paid for his home, and supported his family. The demon took his left hand, stretching it out, and used that strange fire rope to lock his fingers in place. The man went wild. He did not know what this short, masked monster intended to do, but it scared him. He swore, begged, cursed and cried, but it was to no avail.


    ¡°Tell me what I need to know then,¡± the demon had said. ¡°Tell me how to get into the headquarters of the Arrows and you keep your fingers.¡±


    Tears fell down the face of the man. Why me? He thought. His captor was incredibly brutal, not once during his time imprisoned had the pain let up. Even if it was just a little, there was pain. The ropes were too tight, the chair he was tied to was jagged and full of splinters, even the air he was breathing was full of smog and made his throat sore. The place was hell.


    ¡°I''ll tell you,¡± he said. ¡°Please, just let me go afterwards. I have a family.¡±


    The masked man tilted his head to the side and said, ¡°Do you now?¡± There was something profoundly unsettling about the way he said the words that made the captured man want to swallow his words. ¡°Alright. If you tell me where the entrance is, I will end this. If you lie, however, I will cut off the fingers of your left hand up to the first knuckle. Then you will answer me again. If you lie to me a second time, I will cut off up to the second knuckle. We will keep going until you are out of fingers on your left hand, and then move on to your right one. If you haven''t died after that, then we can just start on your arms.¡±


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    The man shrank back in fright, as much as the rope would let him. He was in a real bind. If he told his torturer and something bad happened to the Arrows, then he was a dead man walking, but if he did not tell, then he had no doubt in his mind that the demon would do as he said. He wondered if, by sending the demon to a trapped entrance, he would be able to warn the members of the gang that someone was coming. In that case, even if he lost the tips of his fingers, he would be safe.


    ¡°I bet you are weighing up the choice of losing your fingers to get me into a trap aren''t you?¡± The masked man said, interrupting his train of thought. ¡°That would work, if it was anyone but me. Look, there''s no point in being brave. We both know that you''re going to break when I get all the way through your left hand, one way or the other. Just tell me, and I''ll end this.¡±


    ¡°You''ll let me go if I tell you?¡± He replied.


    ¡°I''ll end this, yes.¡±


    He broke. In tears, he blurted out every entrance to the Arrow¡¯s nest that he knew. It was terrifying, but he knew that once he was free, he could run and hide. He had two bolt-holes that no one knew about, so he was confident in the fact that he could go so deep underground that no one would find him for months.


    The demon nodded and then said ¡°I''m glad you didn''t lie to me. I''ll end this now.¡± There was a tightening sensation around his neck and then a hot, sharp pain as he fell over. He saw a headless body tied to a chair and wondered Who is that? as his sight and mind faded into darkness.

 Chapter 71: The Festival Of The Dead (7)

    Laurence made quick work of the body, setting fire to it with his inner flame and letting it burn until all that was left was ash. ¡°Stupid man,¡± he said to no one in particular, ¡°you were dead the moment you joined the Arrows¡±. He cleared away what was left, and moved out of the building. He had ten possible entry points that he knew would get him inside, and five that he could use purely for exit purposes.


    The torture scenario would have been a lot harder for Laurence, had he not modified the mask Orwell had given him. Before it was the identifier of the most notorious and dangerous member of Spring Street, but now it had become a Saint tier artefact. Laurence had given it two special abilities, as well as a very simple defensive array. The first power was the reason why the captive man never wondered about the age of his captor, because it was a complete voice modulator, to the point where Laurence could even sound like a woman if he wished. The second ability was a lie detector, it would allow you to simply know if the person actually believed what they were saying. Simply knowing if something was the absolute truth was an impossibility for a Saint tier artefact, but knowing if someone believed something was a lot simpler.


    The last part of the mask, the defensive array, was a very simple one. It used sound waves to destabilise the inner ears of everyone in its vicinity, rendering them helpless through complete lack of balance. Laurence had found that transforming the mask into a Saint tier tool was far easier than he was expecting. The mask seemed to both be a lot older than he had originally realised and made of an incredibly solid polymer, one that Laurence had never seen before, but he assumed it was a material called Archaic Ice Plastic. Made from refining Archaic Ice Oil, the plastic was an incredibly malleable tool for containing materials. It had an inbuilt resistance to corrosion and was a relatively valuable substance in Earth tier, so Laurence could not help but wonder why it was turned into a mask.


    He walked down to the southern park in Rodah Vale, where his victim had informed him about an entrance into the Arrow¡¯s base. There was a lot of foot traffic in the area, so Laurence had to be careful, even as late in the night as it was. Laurence was arrogant, to the point of naivety sometimes, but his loss against Alistair had made him realise something. He could be beaten, he could die. He looked back on the mass of now faceless people in his memory, all the lives he had taken on his journey so far. He needed to never be in the same situation as them. He needed to kill, but he also needed to be cautious.


    He stood around five hundred metres away from the entrance and waited. With his hood up and mask off, he looked like any other young thief on the street; a common sight in the strip. He was looking for a group going the same direction as him, one that was big enough for him to seamlessly slip in and out of. It was surprisingly hard. Some groups were too small, some were full of girls, some were of much older people. He just needed a group of around five people who were of similar height to him to walk past.


    Finally he got his chance, a team of seven boys from a gang he failed to recognise were walking in the same direction as him. He smirked and walked behind, quickly blending in and looking like one of their gang who was just lagging a little behind. He was ever so slightly tense the entire time. The only way this attack would work was if he caught the gang by surprise. He needed to be inside, because if the Arrow¡¯s base was like that of Spring Street, they would have the ability to shut any single part of the base down from a central hub, through traps and cave-ins. Every gang used them in the case of invasion by the bobbies. It was not something that happened often, but it did mean the gang had managed to steal from someone they should not have.


    As they approached the door, Laurence put on the mask and moved over to the entrance. His victim had told him of ten entrances and four exits to the base, so Laurence had picked the last exit that he had been informed about. He chose an exit over an endeavour because exits in a gang base were rarely manned. Most often they relied on a trick or an oddity in building design that meant it was impressive for a normal person to get in through that point, however one could still leave through it. This kind was a four metre drop.


    In an overhanging section of a building with no entrance there was a hole through the floor that one could drop down through to leave. It was relatively near the wall, but far enough away that bar some feat of extreme acrobatics, only someone with a ladder could get in. Laurence smiled behind his mask and leapt up into the air, easily catching the ledge and pulling himself up. Looking around, Laurence saw no one. As he had hoped, the exit was not guarded and instead he was standing alone in an empty house. The building had been gutted and turned into a pathway. With no furniture or any kind of furnishing at all, Laurence could not help but think the place looked rather lonely. There were thousands of houses like the one he was in, devoid of life and care, all over the desolate strip and executioners pen, and none of the inhabitants knew why. At one point this place had been more than a busy slum, it had been a thriving set of districts in one of the greatest cities in the universe. He used the melancholy brought on by the thought of the house to suppress his urge, but he could tell, he was about to explode again. He felt thoroughly versuvian, and any moment he knew that if he let go of his control he would become the pyroclasm of his urge, killing everyone and everything in sight.


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    He moved out of the house and into the sewers. In most houses in the desolate strip there were manholes that lead to the sewer level of the city. It was the place that the gangs had first fought over, because it gave them unrestricted access to massive swathes of land, as long as they avoided the active tunnels. The sewer itself could become rather maze-like, but once a gang took control of a sewer region they would make sure that all paths eventually led towards their central sanctum regions, containing their mess hall and claimant hall.


    Once Laurence got around twenty metres away from his entrance, he was plunged into a cloying darkness. He expected that he was supposed to have some sort of lantern, but he never carried one. Instead he drew inklight and wrapped the strip of rope around his fist. It looked like a florescent snake, binding his arm, but it gave off a comfortable glow that let Laurence see far beyond what he could beforehand. He moved off and followed the dust covered path, keeping his senses as active as possible to make sure he did not miss anything.


    He walked and walked, listening to the sound of his heart, the trapping of his feet, and the echoing of the voice in his head. The closer he got to his target, the stronger the sound of the voice got. It wanted him to kill. It told him to kill. He had to kill. He knew that the moment he ended his first target, he would begin a murder spree the likes he had never gone on before. He wanted to keep control, but it was harder than anything he had ever done before.


    After a five minute walk, he saw a young man, maybe sixteen years old, standing in the pathway. He seemed to be coming in Laurence¡¯s direction to leave the area, but the moment he saw the young boy walk towards him, he could not help but put up his guard.


    ¡°Who are you?¡± He said. His eyes darted from the mask covering Laurence¡¯s face to the hammer in his hand. He knew that the person in front of him was not a member of the Arrows, and if they took the symbol on their mask into account, they were not here for good reasons.


    ¡°I''m here to repay the damage you caused to my gang,¡± Laurence replied, mimicking Orwell¡¯s voice. ¡°It''s time for you all to die.¡±


    The pressure and killing intent Laurence was exuding made the man fall backwards. He wanted tokill. He needed to. ¡°No!¡± He shouted in his own voice. He wanted control back. He could not let himself get consumed. Not yet. He hit himself in the side of the head, trying to force the voice out of his brain, but it would not work. It did not stop. He screamed out in his own voice, before the swinging his hammer and crushing the skull of the enemy in front of him.


    His scream echoed through the halls, warping and twisting to the point where it was unrecognisably monstrous. Blood and brain matter spattered the halls, spraying Laurence with no small amount. It was time. It was time to kill them all. They would all die by his hand. They had to. They hurt him in a way he did not understand. He did not want it. He refused to allow the pain to exist anymore. All that was left was rage, and the inexhaustible desire to kill everything.

 Chapter 72: The Festival Of The Dead (8)

    The screams spilled through the halls as Laurence ran through the more populated areas of the base. Every person he came past, whether they were young or old, was cleft in two. Some into less, some into more, but no one got away. Originally, a lot of them fought with the masked beast that Laurence had become, but when it became clear that they would just die they began running.


    No one was faster than the boy. No one could escape. It was like they were trying to run from the grim reaper himself, one with a form. The only thing that would slow Laurence down was when a large group of people bundled together in an intersection. Often they would mix together and some would be escaping, while others would be hunting down what was causing such a big reaction. When that happened the people still died in droves, but some could get away. The mass of bodies and pulped flesh would block him and he would have to swing, and swing, and swing to clear his way through the pile-up.


    By the time Laurence got to the mess hall of the base, he was covered from head to toe in blood, chunks of flesh, cartilage and bone. He was a sight to behold. A red demon, closer in height to a meter than a meter and a half, with a great blue hammer and a pristine masked face. The people who saw Laurence could not help but feel their skin crawl; it was unsettling to say the least.


    The mess hall of the Arrow¡¯s base was a completely different beast in comparison to the one in Spring Street. Set on four floors of a cleaned out building, it was the nexus of everything the Arrows did. The floor was split, and wound up the building like a thick staircase littered with tables, chairs and pillows. The place was a zone of carousing and comfort rather than sustenance and planning, to the point that even through the fog of slaughter, Laurence could not help but think that the Spring Street mess hall was rather spartan.


    Sitting in a mass of pillows on the floor above Laurence, there was a man who exuded an aura of opulence and power. Thin chains of gold and steel covered his bronze, muscular, hairless body. He smiled at the boy-come-demon as he entered the room, revealing a set of pearlescent platinum teeth, and picked up a goblet filled with wine from the table by his side. Taking a sip, his eyes closed slightly in reverie over the flavour before he placed the goblet back down and stood up.


    ¡°So you''re the one who¡¯s broken into my halls and caused a ruckus. Have you come to die Masked Man?¡± His rough lilt echoed through the room. The man had a commanding air about him that made even his most fervent of enemies want to capitulate. Orwell could dominate a room with wise words, clever rhetoric, and a certain flair with his speeches, but this man could dominate a room by existing. He was someone who was simply born to rule.


    ¡°Kill,¡± Laurence replied.


    ¡°You''re not going to kill anyone. Your spree ends here.¡± The man walked to the edge of the floor he was on and jumped off, landing in front of Laurence. ¡°From close up, you really are quite small. Are you a dwarf or a boy?¡± The man sneered. He assumed that he would be able to bait Laurence into attacking in anger. ¡°Is this all Spring Street can send at me? Do they have so few men left?¡±


    ¡°Kill,¡± Laurence said again. He raised his hammer and swing it towards his combatant. The man moved back and the hammer ever-so-slightly grazed his chest, spitting the skin wide open. The man''s eyes went wide and he moved back, out of Laurence¡¯s immediate reach.


    ¡°Dwarf, you have some skill. I guess I will reward you with dying a noble death at the hands of Roy the Blade, or rather at the point of his sword.¡± The man, Roy, took off a pendant of his and held it in his hands. It twisted and writhed before transforming into a two finger wide blade. ¡°This sword is one of the rare Saint weapons left in the city. I found it when I was younger, but I never found someone who was worthy of dying on it. Today that changes.¡±


    Laurence swung his hammer once more. The air tore, and made a cracking sound as the weapon began picking up speed. With each swing, Laurence would move the hammer into the next attack. Left, right, up, down he swung, each time the head would be dodged by Roy, but the air pressure would leave a lasting mark. The berserk child would not stop, but as he kept swinging Roy began his counter attack. There was as much form in Roy¡¯s combat as Laurence¡¯s, but his weapon was just as special. Each strike would lead to a near miss, either clipping Laurence¡¯s clothes or missing his bare skin by millimetres, but as Laurence kept going wounds began to spring up all over his body.


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    Roy thrust his sword at Laurence¡¯s right, and the berserk child moved in response to that. The moment the blade was clear, Laurence once more felt a cut on his left side. This one had managed to puncture his Orik-leather armour, leaving a bloody gash that wept from his side. Laurence snarled at the pain but leapt forwards without dropping his pace at all. In response, Roy waved his blade in front of himself and pulled back quickly. There was a sick grin on his face as he watched Laurence slam into what was effectively a wall of invisible knives. The blades bit into his flesh and he could not help but scream out, more in rage than pain.


    In his killing frenzy Laurence could feel very little pain, but could immediately tell when his battle prowess dipped. He was getting weaker with each strike, even if he could not see them.


    That said, Roy was not holding out well either. Each swing of Laurence¡¯s hammer was closer to hitting than the last, and Roy could tell that Laurence only needed to hit once to end his life. He had begun by mocking the dwarven warrior in front of him, but as the battle went on, he had less and less space to breathe, let alone talk. The masked character in front of him was highly powerful, albeit not skilled enough to make a difference, so each swing was full of holes yet contained a terrifying power. He had never thought that such great power could come from a body so small.


    Laurence swung the hammer into the ground, spitting up a cloud of dust and a rain of stone shards. They spread towards Roy before he cut them down with his bizarre sword maneuvers. Unfortunately Laurence used this break in line of sight, and in Roy''s momentum, to appear beside him and hammer home an attack. Roy swung his blade, deflecting the hammer from a straight blow, but was still sent flying away from Laurence. The bones in his arms jarred against each other and he nearly dropped his sword, however he kept hold.


    Finally, Roy had had enough of walking the fine line of avoiding the hammer. He could tell that this masked warrior was going to win if they dragged this out much longer. He was simply taking more damage. He began pumping all the mana from his reservoir into the blade, letting it overflow and form a massive ethereal edge around the blade. Each strike that Roy had made contained a small amount of his mana, which allowed the sharpness of the weapon to persist in the air until Laurence collided with it. He would guide his adversary into each of his strikes, slowly constricting a net and then end them when they had no room to move. This new strike was that effect, but hundredfold stronger. The aura invisibly extended the length and width of the blade, making it far more deadly.


    Laurence was frenzied, but he could still feel when a strike would be lethal to him. The baleful aura that the blade in Roy¡¯s hand exuded was simply overwhelming. In the primal state Laurence was in he could clearly tell that this next strike was kill or be killed. He had no real way of avoiding it, he simply was not quick enough. He had to face it head on, but in doing so he could lose his life. His back was against the wall, and for the first time since he had begun to hear the voices there was silence in his mind. He could control himself again.


    Swinging the lightning hammer round, he began building up momentum. With each rotation that he made, he forced mana into the hammer, allowing it to release snake after snake of lightning that quickly wrapped around the hammerhead. The blue light exuded from the hammer began changing as the hammer itself could not keep up with the power of the next strike. Laurence gritted his teeth, then as Roy began moving towards him, let the hammer fly out. What had looked like a sparking whirlwind quickly became a bolt of lightning over two metres in thickness. It crackled through Roy''s blade, Roy, and then the path behind him, before making the entire far wall of the mess hall collapse.


    Laurence sank to his knees. It was over, one way or the other. He had thrown everything into that last strike, and hoped it was enough to put Roy the Blade down for good. If he had succeeded, then the Arrows were dead. He just needed to sleep, and to find Damien.


    On the far side of the room, there was a charred corpse of a man, with a warped and oversized slab of metal attached to his hand. Where the tip of the blade ended there was a tear in the rock that punctured around fifty metres into the ground. The sides of the tear were completely smooth, to the point where it was like the missing rock had been removed from the very fundamentals of reality.

 Chapter 73: The Festival Of The Dead (9)

    The rocks fell around the fleeing crowd. The tunnel was beginning to collapse, as had so many other sewer tunnels before them. At this point many of the members of the crowd had accepted that not all of them would escape, everyone was just trying to make sure they could get out with what was theirs. Damien was no different. He had joined the Arrows in the hope that his betrayal would kill, or at least maim, the name of his life, but now it was crashing down around him.


    Half his original troupe had been trapped behind a cave in, while the others had all separated from him in the crowd. Useless, he thought to himself. Once I get out of here, I will start my own gang and be done relying on the strength of others. He had been fuming since the attack had failed. He had given them Spring Street on a silver platter, in exchange for money and a couple of powerful artefacts, but since the attack had backfired he had been met with scorn and derision at every turn. He had even called in debts to pull in powerful fighters on his side, and still Laurence had managed to come out ahead.


    He swung his fists in rage and knocked over a couple of people in front of him. Everything he had worked for had failed, all because of one stupid, albeit strong, child. The person in front of him collapsed at the strike, so he trampled over their body. They were in his way, and the moment they fell they were also effectively dead. Even if they survived the trampling from the crowds, there was no way they would be able to get out before the tunnel collapsed. Damien knew this, but he simply did not care. He was getting out, and no measly thief from a second rate gang was going to stop him from getting out alive.


    Looking ahead, he could see a path to the right, and a path that quickly led to an open exit. The crowd in front of him were crying with relief at the sight. It was their sign of life, their path to freedom. While there was light they had hope, and every person who got out of the ground made some sort of cry or scream over the fact that they survived, spurring those still in the tunnels on. They were so close, they could feel the fresh air on their faces, they could see the light, hear the wind. They were almost out.


    Then the ceiling cracked. There was a rumble and a snapping sound as the ground above the fleeing crowd began to give way. Screams began echoing around Damien as he ran even quicker. He stopped thinking, stopped being angry, stopped mindlessly attacking people. He focused everything he had on surviving his gauntlet. The screams became worse when the cracks reached the cavern entrance and the entrance itself began quickly caving in. Within seconds it was impossible for anyone to escape in that direction. Some could not believe it, some could only cry at the fact that their escape path had been cut off, some even began digging in a hopeless attempt to either save someone or to get through the rubble wall.


    Damien knew that there was only death if he stopped moving, so as he reached the turnoff, he began sprinting down it, with around twenty other people following his footsteps. They all knew it was a race against time, and that if they could not get out they would be as dead as a doornail.


    The cracking sounds followed the gaggle of fleeing thieves. Each step they took felt like their entire lives flashed before their eyes, the cracking and crumbling that surrounding them just built upon the idea that their demise was imminent. There was a rumble, and the earth began caving in behind them. The screams grated against Damien¡¯s ears. His lungs burned as he ran for his life, not daring to stop, not daring to look back.


    Something caught against his foot and he tripped up, the world tumbled and then there was only darkness.


    Later, maybe an hour, maybe minutes, maybe even a day, Damien awoke. He was surrounded by rocks and his side hurt, but he was alive. He coughed a little due to the dust, before deciding to move some of the nearby stone away from his face. The disturbed stones made others fall around him, but they ended up just clearing more of a path than before.


    His field of view had increased to the point where he could see the clearing around two metres in front of him. It was not a pretty sight. There were two corpses of people who had taken rocks to the head, one whose head had been crushed like a watermelon, with brain matter leaking all over the floor. It made Damien laugh, then choke a little. He seemed to still be luckier than some.


    He looked up and saw, much to his delight, a small opening, one that could just fit a person. All he needed to do was remove some of the smaller rocks trapping him, then stand up and climb out. It was easy. He brushed off the rubble, moved a couple of big stones and tried to move his legs out. That was when he realised he could not feel his legs.


    He could not feel his legs.


    The sheer shock at the dilemma that had been presented to him destroyed all hope that he had of getting out. He could not feel his legs. It was a death sentence in the situation. No one would come to the rescue. Anyone who he had favour with was likely dead, not to mention the fact that only madmen would look around in places where the ground had recently collapsed.


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    The weight of the nature of his legs crashed down upon him and he could not help but scream out in fury, and anguish. Sadly only the dead could hear his cries.


    Miles away, Laurence awoke. He looked at his surroundings, saw the corpse of Roy, and sighed. There was nothing to be gained from the corpse, but he was sad. The fight was far closer than Laurence would have liked to admit, and after looking at the scar that Roy''s sword had left in the earth, he could not help but feel he had only won by fluke. If he had been a moment slower with the release of his hammer, that hole would have gone through him instead of through the wall.


    If he had not snapped himself out of his berserk state, then it was highly likely that he would have been killed as well. It was true fortune that he had survived, but he knew he needed to become strong enough that fortune never played a part. He needed to get better, and the last thirty or so hours had proved that to him thoroughly. He needed help.


    Ascending the now thoroughly ramshackle building that used to contain the Arrows mess hall, Laurence got the first glimpse of the damage that he had wrought. The sun was rising over the streets, giving the world a steely blue hue. It crested the houses and slowly spread over a truly desolate strip of land. The thick line that shot to the north of where Laurence stood was made of collapsed buildings and caved in roads. It stretched for almost a kilometre, splitting off like the veins in a leaf. It was truly devastating.


    Laurence could not help but raise his eyebrows in surprise at the sight. It was well beyond his expectations. He sighed, this was not what he had intended to do. The collateral damage was a fact that he would have rather avoided causing, but as he could not avoid it he moved on. He lowered his hood and took off his mask. They had done their job. If anyone saw him now, they would simply assume he was a survivor of the mess. The blood had long since been shed by his clothing, but the ruddy tone of his skin was undeniable. He just hoped no one would ask why it was on his hands and neck, but not his face.


    Laurence slipped out of one of the many holes in the building and began the long walk home. Half way back, he stopped. He had spent a large chunk of the journey just watching the people he had affected try and move on with their lives. He watched how the injured took care of the sick, how the strong watched over the weak. He looked at the way the people were suffering and thought I need to make it so the people I care about are never in this situation. The plight of others had not motivated him to be kinder, it had pushed him to become stronger; stronger than ever before.


    He turned and began walking away from Spring Street, the journey would be longer this way, but it was finding that Laurence needed to do. He walked and walked, over thirty kilometres in a single day, but eventually he found his target. He found the place he needed to be. If I want to get strong, there is only one person I trust to actually help me, he thought as he stood beneath a great sign. The boy knocked on the great oak doors that stood as testament to the building''s majesty, and was quickly greeted by an acolyte in a grey uniform.


    ¡°Tell your master that the child, Laurence, is here to learn¡±. He paused, then waited for the acolyte to leave. After a few minutes the acolyte returned with a man Laurence recognised well following him. Laurence smiled at the man, and when the man saw him, he could not help but winkle his nose. ¡°Hello Alistair,¡± he said.


    ¡°You smell of blood. Something big has happened, hasn''t it?¡±


    ¡°The Arrows are gone.¡±


    Alistair nodded, sliding his hands behind his back. ¡°And Damien?¡±


    ¡°I don''t know. Maybe he got out, and he will raise his head in a few months, or maybe he died. I don''t care either way. All I know is that when I fought Roy the Blade, I was pressed more than I am comfortable with, and you''re the only person I know who can help me with that. So help.¡±


    Alistair laughed. It was a deep, booming laugh, one with a surprising amount of warmth behind it. ¡°It just so happens we have a spot open thanks to your friend, Jim was it?¡± He paused, looking sorrowful for a moment before his demeanour relaxed and he smiled again. ¡°So if you''re willing to learn, I will welcome you in¡±.


    Laurence nodded and walked through the large oak doors, stepping foot in the Empty Throne school of combat for the first time in his life. It was time for him to get stronger.

 Chapter 74: Respite

    ¡°I''m so glad we¡¯re finally out of that realm,¡± Winoa said, sighing happily at the sight of the open sky and feel of the wind on her skin. ¡°Who''s dumb idea was it to halt a person in the sixth floor testing chambers anyway? Argh it makes me so angry! We were only a week past the year limit.¡±


    ¡°You''ve said this before, Win,¡± Cleo sighed, ¡°The parameters on us are a lot harder because we start with an advantage¡±. She agreed with her friend, but she could not help but understand the reasoning behind the restriction. ¡°We will almost always skip floors six to nine, so there''s got to be done way to push us beyond our comfort zone¡±.


    ¡°Yeah, well travelling with that Zoo guy was a mistake.¡±


    ¡°And I said I was sorry for that. He knew the best way to Slipstream, and neither of us realised that it would cause such a big problem when getting a ship to Maelstrom.¡±


    Winoa stuck her tongue out at her friend and laughed. ¡°Still your fault¡±.


    The two girls had become even closer over the time they had been trapped in the sixth floor testing dimension. They both cultivated with the elements, so working together allowed them to cover each other''s weaknesses in greater detail than either of them could have on their own. Thanks to their two year journey together they had ascended to the lofty heights of peak Sainthood, with an extremely competent grasp on the capabilities of the four elements.


    ¡°So what now?¡± Winoa asked. She knew full well that Cleo refused to go to either of the regions controlled by the clans of Chaos, but they were both clueless about where to go from there. Winoa was loath to leave her friend alone, and she did not know anyone who would be in her clan¡¯s section of the city. The only real benefit that either girl would receive was a stable place to stay.


    Cleo fiddled with her collar as she thought about the options that she had. She could have stayed in the clan, but her status as an unwanted child meant that she would never truly be welcome there. Sometimes she would wonder what life would have been like, had she been born the first or second child of a family. Even the third child, usually considered the weakest would be treated better than she had originally. She had worked and worked, lucked out a little and eventually earned herself a copy of the Book. She had known for as long as she had known anything that no one in the Ignis clan cared about her, at least no one who was not her brothers. When she was around her clan, she had to work twice as hard for half the result. It was why so many people were shocked at the fact that she had become one of the three children selected to climb the tower, and not only that but she had actually been the first person of her year to become ready for Sainthood. She had risen far above her birth and stunned the entirety of the Ignis family in the process.


    Again and again, Cleo had worked and worked to make herself the best she could be, to make herself respected, maybe even admired by her fellow members of the Ignis family, but she knew that even reaching peak sainthood at the age of eight and a half. All she needed was some time to consolidate everything she knew and she would likely break into Heaven rank with ease. Unfortunately, the amount of knowledge that she was dealing with took a long time to consolidate.


    Her next option was to beg another clan to let her in, but that would likely cost her her book. The Heaven rankers of the nine clans of the books would do anything to get their hands on a second book. Getting a second book was the simplest path to immortality. It was something she simply could afford to do. The third was she could stay in one of the uncontrolled areas. She would need to earn her way, or find an empty house to squat in, but unfortunately neither one had any idea of how to begin.


    They decided in the end to go to the desolate strip and look for one of the nicer areas, eventually settling on an area called Panwood lane. It was relatively quiet, and had been rebuilt by the current community that lived there. There were still several empty houses, but the lord of the land was a retired bobby. He prided himself on affordable, and high quality buildings that people could rent for cheap. He had made a killing off the various unaligned challengers who needed a place to stay. Some would only stay for a few months, but for many this floor would be their final stop on climbing the tower. They just did not have the courage or the tenacity to climb further.


    Panwood lane was growing into a thriving ecosystem, as both a rest stop and permanent housing, but there was something about the area that seemed extremely morose to the two girls when they first arrived. They could not help but feel the waves of dread and sadness flowing off everyone. Every person they walked past wore a black armband, a simple black cloth hanging from their hips, or full on mourning clothes. It was like they were preparing for a funeral of some kind, one that had affected all their lives.


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    Eventually Winoa worked up the courage to ask one of the more active and happier looking members of the community, and got pointed in the direction of the landlord. The man was an elderly looking fellow, sitting against a wall, whittling away at a piece of wood. He looked up at the two girls and gave them a wan smile.


    ¡°Good day ladies,¡± he said, putting down a beautiful statuette, ¡°how can I help you?¡±


    ¡°We just arrived in Spirit and are looking for a place to stay. We have to stay until we reach the age where we can climb Babel again, so we may be here for a while,¡± Cleo replied, bowing slightly at the man¡¯s greeting. ¡°Is there anywhere we would be able to stay, and perhaps work to earn shards to live? We are both skilled with the elements.¡±


    The man chuckled, ¡°You two girls are obviously golden children, so why aren¡¯t you with your family? Why aren¡¯t you with your clan? You could get much better treatement with them.¡±


    ¡°We can¡¯t. There are reasons why we can¡¯t stay with them, but I can¡¯t tell you,¡± said Winoa. ¡°It¡¯s complicated, and to do with clan politics more than anything. We just need a place to live, and perhaps work on some element arrays to make the place a nicer place to live.¡±


    ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll give you two a place to stay, and a stipend of two silver shards a week to live on if you install light and flowing water arrays in all the living areas in this estate. Does that sound fair?¡±


    Cleo and Winoa glanced at each other. They did not know how much an arrayist would normally received, but they knew that they would both be able to live comfortably off that. After a moment, they nodded in unison. ¡°That seems fair,¡± Cleo replied.


    ¡°I trust that you will be true to your word. The clans generally react negatively to those who besmirch their name.¡±


    ¡°We will do our work, don¡¯t worry,¡± said Winoa. ¡°The last thing either of us actually want is to rock the boat with the clans¡±.


    The old man rubbed his hands together and began showing them the way to their new home. ¡°Okay, well I have a house for you but there is a girl about the same age as you living there. We took her in a few weeks ago and she¡¯s not in a good way. Perhaps you two will be able to improve her state of mind¡±.


    The two girls followed the landlord to a small housing unit near the entrance to Panwood lane, it was dark, but it had a homely feel to it. Cleo sighed, it would be the first place she could call home without worry about being picked on or harassed by her own family. She took a few steps inside and saw the form of a small person curled up in a ball, shying away from the light and the people coming through the doors.


    Her greenish brown hair was bedraggled and hid her face, but she seemed like she was a frightened rabbit. She pulled a thin blanket that covered her body up to her face, in the hopes that it would hide her better. Eventually the landlord walked in as well and said, ¡°Girlie, you¡¯ve got a few new roommates¡±.


    ¡°I told you not to let anyone in here. They will get attacked by the devourer if they do!¡± Her voice was musical, and for some reason Cleo recognised the voice. It was one she had not heard in almost two years, but recognised well. ¡°It¡¯s not safe,¡± the girl continued. ¡°He¡¯s coming for me. He always does...¡±


    ¡°Who is the devourer?¡± Interjected Winoa.


    ¡°Winoa? Is that you? It¡¯s been a long time since I heard the voice of another golden child.¡± The girl pulled down the blanket and pushed away her hair. She was gaunt, but still had the floral quality that had made her a firmly popular girl when they had first met. She smiled, the thin slit of her sallow face not quite reaching her eyes. ¡°Hello Winoa, hello Cleo. It¡¯s been a long time.¡±


    ¡°Rose?¡± Cleo gasped, ¡°What happened to you?¡±

 Chapter 75: The Devourer

    ¡°It started about a year and a half ago,¡± Rose began. She sat at the small table in the kitchen of the apartment with a fresh cup of redweed tea, the sweet scent of the tea leaves and honey mixed together soothed the girl enough to focus on her terror. ¡°I was originally with my partner for the journey, a boy from the Briar clan called Willis. He wasn¡¯t as strong as me, but he was a worthy partner to climb to the tenth floor with. We learned a lot together, though judging by the aura that is around you two, I still fell behind.¡±


    Cleo smiled, she could tell that Rose was trying to make light of the situation, but it fell slightly flat. She was better at rude than complementary, so the sound of her being such was odd. ¡°What happened to him?¡± Cleo finally said, seeing ose slowly slip back into her shell.


    ¡°He died. I¡¯ll get there soon enough,¡± Rose replied. ¡°I was surprisingly happy back then. I don¡¯t know if I¡¯ll ever be that happy again. I don¡¯t know if I can. Every day was a joy to be part of, every day was a wonder, every day was too good to be true. I didn¡¯t have to pretend to be the controlling and arrogant person that I normally did. I didn¡¯t have to pretend with Willis because he had known me for as long as we had both been alive. We traveled like that for six months, but when we arrived in the fifth floor, things started to get strange. About three weeks into the journey to the next gateway we came across a man who had killed three horses to escape something. He didn¡¯t know what it was, but something had killed an entire citadel settlement. The corpses had all dessicated and the people had died, but they had not stopped doing their general day to day jobs¡±.


    ¡°We found a town like that. It... It was hard to deal with,¡± Winoa said, glancing at Cleo and remembering how she was the one who had to deal with the corpses of the devourer¡¯s victims. It had hurt Cleo in a way that Winoa could not really understand, a way that was only beginning to show its edges now.


    ¡°It followed us. Every couple of weeks we would hear about towns and settlements that had been completely destroyed by this entity, this thing. It was following in the path that we took, it was chasing us and we had no idea why¡±. Rose began to shake and cry, but held her hands in fists as if to steel herself. ¡°About a week after we arrived here, Willis decided to see which of us the devourer was chasing. He left me alone, and I haven¡¯t heard from him since¡±.


    There was silence as the two girls digested what they had heard. The devourer had harmed them all in some way, but they had no idea who or what it was. Cleo grabbed Rose¡¯s hands and looked her in the eyes. ¡°Do you know if it was Willis this devourer was after? Because if it wasn¡¯t then we could hunt this devourer down. There¡¯s no way that whatever this devourer could stand up to three saints, let alone peak saints¡±.


    ¡°I know he¡¯s dead. He said he was going to come back in a week but he was in one of the regions of the festival of the dead when the killing happened¡±.


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    ¡°The festival of the dead?¡± Winoa asked, ¡°What¡¯s that?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s something that happened a year ago, over a thousand people died in a single day. It was the single biggest massacre in the history of the neutral zones. Generally Bobbies keep the peace well enough, but that day they couldn¡¯t. So many people died that day... Families. Innocents. People who shouldn¡¯t have died. It was horrible, nowhere was safe. Panwood was one of the focus areas, the one hit by the devourer itself¡±. There was a catch in Rose¡¯s voice. She was not sad, she was not even mournful. The night made her angry beyond belief. ¡°I¡¯m so tired of being scared, but... The thought of the devourer catching up to me makes me just want to run away and hide. I can¡¯t go outside anymore. I don¡¯t want to live like this, Cleo. I can¡¯t¡±.


    Cleo sighed as Rose broke down into tears. She had hated the girl when they first met, but this was something she would not wish on her worst enemy. There was such a huge weight over Rose¡¯s head that even Cleo¡¯s experience of dealing with the devourer¡¯s waste could not compare to how the girl was feeling. She had been put under extreme stress for over a year, and she was well past her breaking point. A light breeze would break the girl, and Cleo had no way of knowing if she could be repaired.


    ¡°Why do you call it the devourer?¡± Winoa asked. She was genuinely curious. She had seen the corpses, she knew that they looked like they had been baked in the sun, but she could not understand why the name the ¡®devourer¡¯ had been chosen.


    Rose could not look up; tears continued to stream down her face, but after a few moments, she tried to speak. ¡°It¡¯s... I... I know three things... about the devourer¡±. Every few words were punctuated with sobs and deep breaths as she struggled to get the information out. ¡°The devourer is called the... devourer, because they devour the souls of... of their victims. They are male... and also, the only person who saw them and survived... They said the person was a child like us¡±.


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    Note to all my readers, Book 1 of Babel is going to be completely released on my site by next Friday! I''m going to put some effort into fixing up the colour of the old chapters and answering some comments, so watch out! Also I''m going to give a mini update every time I post on here. It seems unfair otherwise :P (PS: if you want to show your support then check out my Patreon!</a>) Also I appologise for the Exclamation spam. I''m excited about finishing a book!!!!!!

 Chapter 76: The Empty Throne School

    Storm here, new chapter is out, and there are two more to go on my blog before book 1 finishes. I''m slowly sorting out my book and hopefully I have it published before the start of September, so if you want to read an edited version of the novel then you can spend a couple of bucks and buy it.


    #####################


    ¡°The devourer¡¯s a golden child? That''s impossible though. The clans would clamp down on them immediately if they knew who was causing these issues¡±. Cleo was shocked. The iron grip of the clans was stifling, even to an effective exile like herself was still kept on an uncomfortably short leash. It seemed unbelievable to her that someone could avoid it, let alone commit the atrocities that Rose said had occurred.


    ¡°You think I don''t know that? It''s the only thing that makes sense though. They followed me up the floors for who knows how long. They have to be one of us¡±. Rose picked up the teacup and drank it in one go. It was easy to tell she was trying to be strong, but in Cleo¡¯s eyes she seemed more like she was made of fine bone china. ¡°There are rumours... rumours of children showing up with our level of expertise, but with names and auras that the nine clans have never heard of¡±.


    ¡°Do you think they could be from the four beast clans?¡± Winoa asked. The nine book clans and four beast clans were considered the peak powers by most normal people, but the four beast clans were looked down on. They had to marry out, or simply leave their birth clan to gain any sort of real power. They had strong physiques, but without an intellectual path, that meant nothing.


    ¡°The thought passed my mind, but the devourer was called a demon in human flesh. He had to be... he has to be one of us right? There were rumours of powerful children showing up in the neutral zone, but I don¡¯t know how true they are. Most of us are in our clan territories, waiting for a chance to get to the eleventh floor¡±.


    ¡°Look, Rose. We will try and work out who the devourer is. There must be a short list of people, or maybe just a place we could look to see promising young challengers that we could check out,¡± Winoa said, taking control of the situation. Someone had to, and Cleo knew that without a doubt she could not. She had decided, after dealing with what she now knew as the devourer¡¯s leftovers, that her role in life would be one of uncomfortable decisions and terrible actions. She would do things that other people balked at, the things that had to be done by were simply too unsettling to the conscience of a normal person. She chose her path, but she had to be led because of it. She would not shy away from things others could not look at, but she also could not stand in the limelight, lest her actions were revealed. She would become a monster, but she did not want to be called a monster.


    ¡°There''s a place you can go, but I don''t know if you''ll find anything there,¡± Rose said, ¡°the Empty Throne school has a ring in the area, one that most of the adults and children in Panwood lane use for training. They say there are a few people around our age who are insanely gifted¡±. She sat down on her pallet bed, wrapping the blanket round her body again.


    She looks so pathetic... Cleo thought, noticing how gaunt and pale the girl in front of her was. She had obviously been hiding for a long time. ¡°We will be as back as soon a we can, and Rose, please eat something. You look really thin¡±. Rose gave a weak smile in response before the two girls left the house.


    As Winoa and Cleo stepped outside, neither could help but squint as the sun was so bright in comparison to the gloom of Rose''s room. Cleo sighed in appreciation. There was something truly healing about the light, it just made her feel better after such a depressing discovery. They both moved away from their new living quarters with haste, if they were going to live there, they knew they had to make Rose feel better. The next few years would be awful if they had to deal with a girl constantly jumping at shadows, so both girls agreed to do whatever they needed to do to in order to clear Rose''s worries.


    Their short walk to the arena was surprisingly pleasant, with the thin wisps of woodsmoke that permeated the area and scenting their path, and the soft, warm sunlight flowing over them, they could not help but relax. Gradually, the wood and thatch buildings came to a halt, and in their place stood a monolithic stone wall. The ten metre high boundary continued on until it eventually shifted into ornate housing for a massive wooden door. The left door was ajar, and a sign was hanging from it at head height.


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    ¡°Empty Throne school of combat open day, please come in,¡± Winoa read out loud, pausing as they got closer enough to read the smaller text, ¡°note: do not walk off the path to the arena. You may be attacked by constructs. Well, I guess we follow the path then, huh?¡±


    ¡°Seems that way,¡± Cleo replied.


    They walked through the open door and followed the path towards the arena. There was an odd sense of peace that washed over the two girls as they walked past the perfectly sculpted stone gardens, the beautiful metal statues, and the symmetrically planted trees that lined the straight path towards the large building that hopefully contained their target. Each soft crunch of the gravel beneath their feet echoed around them, and was the only sound for miles around.


    Finally they arrived at the tiered tower that held the combat area of the school. The steel grey bricks seemed to draw the eye towards the tower, no matter where you looked. If it was in eyeshot then eventually you would focus on the tower more than anything else; it truly dominated the landscape. Opening the door and stepping inside the tower, the two girls were confronted with a sound that was completely opposed to the tranquility of the outside. A massive roar overtook them as the crowd they were confronted with went wild.


    In the arena, two rather bedraggled men stood at arms length from each other. They were circling each other, looking for openings. It was obvious from the welts on the body of one of the fighters that they had just had an intense, but one sided engagement, and the fight was coming to a close. Some of the crowd were cheering, some were booing, but either way they were whipped into a frenzy, and the men in the arena seemed to be feeding off it.


    The weakened man punched out with his less injured right hand, hooking his fist towards the healthier man¡¯s gut. In response the healthy man stepped inside the hook and swung his elbow towards the head of his opponent. The weakened man seemed to slip as the elbow swung towards his head. He fell on his back and rolled into his palms and shoulders. Wincing he coiled like a spring and kicked towards the head of the healthy man.


    The healthy man stopped in surprise as his opponent disappeared from his field of view, unfortunately this sealed his fate. The weakened man gritted his teeth as his kick went wide, but he did not worry; both his heels slammed into his opponent''s collar bones. As his kick landed, he pushed off the ground and rolled back onto his feet to face the healthier man.


    When the kick connected, there was a pair of sharp cracks as the two thin bones both shattered. The healthy man went white and his arms both feel to his sides. He gasped in pain and fell to his knees, then the referee of the fight called the end of the match. There was silence for a moment before a large swathe of the crowd went wild. Victories from the jaws of defeat were not uncommon, but they were always spectacular, and the crowd who had flocked to watch were reveling in it.


    Various people stood up from the crowd and approached a young boy near the side of the ring. He was obviously important as he was flanked by two powerful looking fighters in some sort of grey uniform, and the way the crowd that approached him were acting, it was like they worshiped him. Cleo thought for a moment before correcting herself; they were not worshiping him, they were showing adoration for what he was giving them.


    Each person was giving the boy a piece of paper with a word and a number on it. The boy looked at the paper, turned round and pulled a bag out of a small box behind him and handed it in exchange for the paper. Some would give the bag back and point to the stone board behind the boy. There were names and numbers written over the board, but the one they were all pointing to was ¡°Law vs Geoffrey¡±. It seemed like it was the next match, so Winoa motioned to Cleo to sit down. They would have to wait until the end of the event to actually be able to talk to anyone, so they thought that they might as well enjoy the spectacle while they waited.

 Chapter 77: Yesod

    The crowd died down when a man walked out into the centre of the stage. He was a well dressed man, almost pampered in comparison to most of the audience, and commanded the room like he was born to it. As he walked into the stage he stepped round a small puddle of blood and sweat. Ushering over one of the attendants, he motioned for them to clean up the puddle and then began looking at the crowd.


    ¡°Ladies and gentlemen,¡± he began, ¡°That was an incredible fight was it not? Tense from the get go, with the underdog finishing on top. I was on the edge of my seat the whole time¡±. The crowd cheered in response, then quickly returned to silence. Cleo could not help but find his control over the people almost mesmeric. The most incredible part for her was he was doing it all with charisma, there were no undulations that came about due to use of mana. The man was not a practitioner of the book of Order. ¡°Is everyone ready for the next match?¡± The crowd cheered. ¡°Well, the next two fighting are something special.


    ¡°Representing the Empty Throne school, we have Law, the wild child. He¡¯s been studying under Alistair as a core disciple for the last year and has a perfect fortnightly match record. Twenty matches, twenty wins. A formidable record by any stretch of the imagination¡±. A young boy in a grey uniform, like the one that the ones that stood flanking the boy Cleo had seen earlier. He looked to be maybe a year older than Cleo herself, but the strength he radiated was something that she could not compare to.


    ¡°On the other side, we have Geoffrey, a Challenger from the land of Odnw¡¯Aldn. I believe he said he was a Lieutenant from the border patrol. He has taken the initiative to do the hammer challenge!¡± The crowd jeered at the man. It was odd of them, because Cleo felt that the man who walked on the stage was of a decent strength, and was far better armed than Law. ¡°As we all know, the hammer challenge is one where the challenger must force Law to use his hammer in either offense or defense. If he does so within ten minutes he automatically wins. Law on the other hand, must incapacitate his opponent, or just last for ten whole minutes without pulling out his hammer¡±. The crowd let out a collective ooh sound, and a second as Geoffrey walked out into the arena. The difference between the two combatants was obvious, almost to an extreme. Law was dressed in the simple combat uniform of the Empty Throne school, empty handed. His chin length wavy hair, dark eyes, tight visible muscles, and domineering aura made him seem like some sort of child demigod.


    In comparison Geoffrey was armed to the teeth. He was decked out in full chainmail armour, leather and an iron helm. With a heavy sword hanging at his waist, Cleo could not help but think that the difference in the two of them was simply unsurmountable. Laurence was strong, but the deck seemed to be so heavily stacked in his favour that she could not see how he could win without a weapon.


    The announcer moved to the edge of the stage, and motioned to a man beside a bell. He stepped out and sat down, then the bell rang. Immediately Geoffrey sprung forward and moved within range of Law. Hand on the hilt of his sword, he readied his strike. If he landed the strike, it was obvious he felt like he could win. He was a challenger, his blade had been forged through the fires of the first ten floors. He had technique, skill and strength, and his journey had been longer than a child.


    Law shifted his feet and raised his fists. His form echoed in the back of the minds of people, but no one could recognise it, at least not until he dived into the range of Geoffrey. As he dipped into range, Geoffrey drew his sword and swung his blade towards Law¡¯s head. Law took a short step back and then dove forward again once blade had passed him. He reached into Geoffrey¡¯s inner range and slammed his fist into where Geoffrey¡¯s solar plexus would be. Geoffrey used his own momentum and Law¡¯s arm to spin out of the way, then swung his sword over his shoulder, towards Law¡¯s head. Law stepped back as the sword swung down and then moved forwards again once Geoffrey finished his twist. He had a natural height disadvantage, so it would be hard for him to go for the face of his opponent. Instead he went for two quick strikes to the abdomen before pulling back into his starting stance. The first strike landed, but as it landed Geoffrey shot backwards and tightened his guard.


    This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.


    The fight was beautiful to Cleo; everything seemed to move so fluidly, and the two combatants were not holding anything back. The only oddity to the girl was that she recognised the style Law was fighting in, but she could not place it. As Law dropped the stance and began bouncing on the spot it clicked in her head, the boy had been fighting using Orion¡¯s Hunt, a spear style. You can use weapon styles barehanded? she thought as the fight continued.


    Law leapt forwards, this time taking charge of the combat, and immediately swung a heavy kick towards Geoffrey¡¯s knees. Geoffrey stepped back, but was not expecting for Law to land on his right leg, the one he had just kicked, pivot, and send another kick towards his side this time. He blocked the kick with the flat of the blade, but Law only used this as another pivot point. Law sprung up and sent a third kick towards Geoffrey¡¯s head, but Geoffrey reacted in time and dropped to the ground, mimicking the victor of the previous bout in escape.


    The two combatants retreated once more and began staring at each other looking for openings. Law stopped bouncing and shifted stance once more, this time with his right fist just hovering slightly above his left. He moved forwards, using arcing motions to reach Geoffrey, but Geoffrey stepped forwards and began a flurry of strikes. He swung towards Law¡¯s waist, and when Law moved to grab the blade, he slid his hand up and caught the tip with his metal sheathed right hand, pulling it from the boy¡¯s grasp. He swung his left arm up, and tried to slam the pommel into Law¡¯s jaw. Law ducked, but his attempt to grasp the blade had left him slightly out of position and so the pommel grazed the top of his head.


    He span backwards and skittered to a stop. Taking a fourth stance, Law began grinning, he was obviously enjoying the engagement. Cleo, on the other hand had her heart in her mouth. She could not believe what she was watching. She had not recognised Law¡¯s third unsuccessful stance, but the second one he took was that of Amaethon¡¯s Blade, replacing the reaping blade with his legs. She was stunned that someone her age could fight and switch stances so fluidly, and not only that, he could switch so fluidly from one stance to another.


    Geoffrey was about to run forward when Law spoke. ¡°Thank you,¡± the boy began, ¡°You are the first person I have met who I think can actually combat my martial skills. I¡¯m going to have fun trying out something I created on you. Experience Yesod, my foundation¡±.


    Law raised his fists once more, and his aura visibly changed. Geoffrey took a step back at the threat he felt from the boy. He steeled himself and ran to fight the boy. Blade out, he stopped just short of Law and thrust his blade towards the boy, a killing blow directed straight at his chest. Law¡¯s grin did not fade from his face, instead he shifted ever so slightly out of the way of the tip of the blade and began short spiralling motions. He struck at Geoffrey¡¯s wrist, then spun and slammed his left palm into the man¡¯s elbow. A second step and he was behind the man, still spinning he kicked against the man¡¯s knees then swung his elbow into the man¡¯s now lowered head. The iron helm Geoffrey wore cracked in two and Law kept spinning round him, his fist swung towards the man, but before he could strike Geoffrey shouted out, ¡°I concede!¡±


    Law¡¯s fist stopped around an inch from the face of his competitor and smiled. ¡°Thank you for taking part in this exhibition match¡±. He stepped off stage and walked out of the arena. The crowd let out a collective breath of air and began cheering at the engagement that took less than a minute to complete. It was a complete contrast to the fight beforehand and had Cleo on the edge of her seat the entire time. She could barely breathe, his fight had been beautiful and she wanted to see more.

 Chapter 78: Questions

    The first book is finally complete on my website, so if you want to read it then have a look on there. I will still be updating on Royal Road, but as usual, the story will be ten chapters behind, so you''ve got around 5 week son here until book 1 is complete and I start book 2, Heaven. If you are enjoying the series and want to support me, then click here to go to my Patreon</a>, otherwise enjoy!


    ###


    The crowd let out a collective sigh as soon as they knew the fight was over. There was something incredible about watching two Saint ranked super experts enter combat, even if they could not quite keep up with what was happening. Cleo, on the other hand, was still astounded at Law¡¯s capabilities. To do what she had seen the boy do, and switch between five different martial forms with ease, one had to be able to fully immerse themself into a martial form at high speed, then shift out of it into another at equally high speed. Immersing yourself into a martial art took high degrees of skill, even more so without the weapon that the style was meant for. Cleo had heard of swordsmen who could transform their fingers into swords using mana, but this was something new to her.


    When the match was truly over, Winoa shook Cleo out of her stupor and dragged her towards the boy they had spotted earlier. He was still surrounded by people, but there were a lot less people crowding round him now. The big crowd that had surrounded the boy had lessened, as it seemed like people were no longer allowed to change their bets. It seemed like there were three more fights that would go on, but the most unpredictable fight had already happened. He was still flanked by two men in the same uniform that Law had worn, but they were a lot more lax about their situation now there were no longer tens of people surrounding them.


    Cleo and Winoa wandered up to the boy, slightly unsure of how to begin. The boy looked up from the various notes that he was carrying in his hands, humming a quiet ditty. Seeing how they were standing awkwardly, but apparently trying to get their attention, the boy waved at them and ushered them over. ¡°Well, what do we have here then?¡± He said.


    ¡°Umm.. I¡¯m not really sure how to go about this, but my friend and I are hunting for the devourer. We¡¯ve heard that a child, or at least someone with a childlike height is the beast we¡¯re searching for, and we need to find him to set our friend¡¯s mind at rest. She¡¯s really been tormented by it¡±. Winoa was the first person to brave the crowds. She had no problem with talking to new people, but she had never tried to talk to someone who was the focus of, or at least near to the focus of over a hundred people. Cleo was the same. It was slightly nerve wracking for them, but they managed to push past it because of Rose.


    ¡°The devourer... As in the guy who ate the nutrients from all those people in the Pen?¡± the boy laughed, ¡°Oh no, we don¡¯t have anyone like that here.Though I wouldn¡¯t put it past Yun to try and feast like that... the guy is weird¡±. Jim hopped off the table he was perched on, and put away the notes into his box. ¡°Look, I¡¯ll ask around, but I can¡¯t promise anything. There¡¯s actually no one I know who has the powers that the devourer is supposed to use, but I can find out from my friends who are in the gangs. Come back in a week and ask for Jim. I¡¯ll tell you if I find anything then¡±. The boy, Jim, bowed at the two girls and turned back to his box that he seemed to be able to fill with masses of paper and bags that people craved.


    ¡°Excuse me,¡± Cleo piped up, ¡°Where did you get that box?¡±


    ¡°This?¡± Jim replied, ¡°Law made it for me. He and I have been friends since he arrived in Spirit¡±.


    ¡°Law made it for you?¡± Cleo asked, mouth agape. ¡°But is he not... Is he not a member of the Dominus clan?¡±


    ¡°Not at all, his full name is Laurence Absolution. Golden child of the absolution clan from two years ago¡±.


    ¡°And he¡¯s an arrayist as well as a combat prodigy?¡± She could barely believe such a person existed, let alone that he was only a year older than her. There were legends of golden children who were more prodigious, but they were usually ten or fifteen years apart. There had not been any such prodigies in her entire lifetime, at least not in her clan. She smiled wistfully at the thought, Perhaps I could have been one such prodigy, if I had not been born from my father.


    ¡°Be happy you aren¡¯t Law. He¡¯s a gifted fighter and maker of tools, but he¡¯s not exactly the most emotionally balanced of people. He¡¯s unpredictable. Honest to a fault though¡±.


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Cleo sighed. ¡°Okay, well thank you for your information, and hopefully we will be back in a week¡±.


    ¡°You¡¯re welcome,¡± Jim replied.


    With that, the two girls left the arena. If what Jim had said was true, then there was very little left for them to find in the martial school.There were only a couple more places that the two girls could reasonably expect to find anything, namely the mercenary soldiers, the Bobbies, or the gangs. With Jim asking the gangs, their only real option was to ask the bobbies if they were willing to share any information.


    They walked through the streets of Spirit as the moon came up, the moonlight bleached road giving the whole view an odd, almost spooky feeling to the girls. They walked for about fifteen minutes before the road split. One way would lead them back to their house, the other would take them to the headquarters of the Sir Robert¡¯s men. Winoa turned to Cleo and said, ¡°It would probably be a good idea if I went and check on Rose. you reckon you¡¯ll be okay dealing with the bobbies on your own?¡±


    ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll be back as soon as possible¡±.


    The two girls split off and Cleo continued her journey towards the headquarters of the peacekeepers of the city. The quickly darkening streets made her speed up her steps. Even a saint was not entirely safe in the streets of the city at night, but the closer to the bobbies base she got, the less likely she was to encounter anything. Eventually her pace slowed as she reached a tall and imposing granite building. There were gargoyles on either side and the crest of the Anvale family affixed above the door in plain view. It was obvious that while this was not the most important base for the bobbies, they still treated each building with a large amount of respect.


    She walked inside and was immediately met with the hustle and bustle of a guard force that was thoroughly understaffed for the area that they had to deal with. Looking for someone to talk to she immediately spotted a familiar face. Her landlord was sat at a desk near the entrance of the building, at a table that was slightly higher than the rest of them. Quickly she ran over to him.


    ¡°Mr Mallory!¡± She said, ¡°What are you doing here?¡±


    ¡°I work here,¡± the balding man replied. ¡°You may not realise this, but I am Captain Bertrand Mallory, leader of the Executioners Pen bobbies. I usually only work at nights though. Sleeping through the day has been so ingrained into my blood that at this point I think I would probably die if I did anything else. Now, what have you come down here for... Cleo, wasn¡¯t it?¡±


    ¡°Yes, Cleo. Umm... I¡¯m here because of the girl who I am sharing the house with¡±.


    ¡°What, that Winoa girl? Has she done something?¡±


    ¡°No, the other one. Rose. We knew her long before you housed us together. We¡¯re golden children of the same generation, so we met on the way up. But that¡¯s not important. She thinks she is being hunted by the devourer, and Winoa and I are looking for him. We were wondering if you would be able to give us any information on finding him, because the rumours seem to point to the fact that he is a golden child¡±.


    ¡°I had heard something to that extent, so why should I give you any information we have? He¡¯s a dangerous individual, and you are not only my protectorate, but also my tenant. Surely, I should be less inclined to give the information to you¡±. Mr Mallory spoke sensibly, but Cleo could tell that he was must looking for a reasonable excuse to give her the information.


    ¡°You should know that I am a golden child, and that so is both Rose and Winoa. That means that not only are we valuable members of our respective clans, but also that all three of us are Saints. Surely it would be better to give us the information and let us deal with it than let some poor Earth rank bobbies meet the devourer by acting on your information and just adding to the already considerable death toll?¡±


    Mr Mallory paused, then pulled out a leather bound folder from his draw. ¡°Fine. This is a folder that contains a copy of the information we have on the devourer. If you can find him and stop his rampage, then that¡¯s great, but don¡¯t bite off more than you can chew¡±.


    ¡°I won¡¯t¡±. Cleo smiled, curtsied to the man who had gone out of his way to help her twice this day. She then turned round and began the long journey home through the dark of the city.

 Chapter 79: An Encounter

    Hey everyone! Triple release coming on today to celebrate the release of the first couple of chapters of my seocnd book, so we will be coming to a close sooner than I thought. I hope you enjoy it!


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    The city streets were quickly becoming deserted as Cleo began her journey home. There was something about the night that terrified people, oppressed their spirits and allowed the rougher side of people to reign free. Cleo walked quickly, but confidently through the streets and back alleyways that would get her home fastest. She might have been a child, but she knew she could handle herself if push came to shove.


    Some of the alleyways were tight quarters, filed with boxes, rubbish and other general detritus, while others were wide enough to get a horse down, paved with cobble and actually quite pleasant to walk down. They were not like the main roads, or the high streets, but they were still consisted world''s better than any of the small alleyways that lead to the doves and houses of those who were considered hopeless, or worthless. From what Cleo had learned, she knew that at one point Spirit was a paragon of support for the poor. Unfortunately, the event that made the Hephaistia clan disappear had left a gaping wound in the city, a and as the generation of social workers changed, they chose to use the easy option if forcing anyone of unstable, or poor finances into the two newly freed areas. It got rid of the problem for a time, but the two areas now populated with the undesirables of the city bred crime faster than a cesspool breeds disease. It kept Cleo on her toes, but she was still confident. As long as she did not meet someone of the calibre of Law, or of the devourer himself, she felt she would be comfortable dealing with anyone coming her way.


    Her shadow extended as she walked by a lit window, quickly followed by two more. The sound of heavy footsteps had followed Cleo for the last five minutes, but looking back now would be a sign of weakness. She needed to wait for them to make a move. The footsteps quickened as she walked down one of the smaller alleyways, if they were not going to move now, then she would force them to. They got closer and closer, until she felt a hand on her shoulder.


    ¡°Hey kid,¡± said one, ¡°You look like you''re pretty well off. How about you share some of your wealth with me and my friend here¡±.


    Cleo turned and was faced with two men, barely more than boys. They were obviously members of some gang or another, but the only thing that showed that was the triangular pattern on their hand. Both were gaunt, and with their greasy, muddy brown hair they could have blended into the crowds that flowed through Spirit with ease. It angered Cleo. It angered her that she would be accosted by two boys on the street. It angered her that the life of the boy''s forced them into this life. It angered her that no one cared enough to get them out of it, but most of all it angered her that they had decided a child was a good target.


    She snarled, and the flames that made up her mana reservoir burnt brighter than before. The boys took a step back, the girl they had targeted went from meek victim to wild animal in seconds. This was not what they were expecting, but nor was the dog formed from fire that aspirated in front of Cleo as she broke away from the grip she had been in.


    The dog was originally the size of an apple, but as she shouted ¡°Fenrir, come fight for me!¡± it enlarged to the size of a large horse. Fenrir slammed its front paws into the ground and sent the two men flying as thick red flames broiled off its body. It leaned down in front of them and began a deep guttural growl that seemed to echo off the walls. They crawled backwards as quickly as they could, desperately trying to avoid the sparks that were popping out of the mouth of the dog. It''s flaming eyes burned like the sun as the two boys reached the edge of the alley and stood up, stumbling into running away with badly singed faces.


    Love this novel? Read it on Royal Road to ensure the author gets credit.


    Cleo laughed as the boys left, and walked up to the flaming canine to stroke its head. Fenrir rumbled happily and turned into a streak of light, disappearing into Cleo''s chest. Now that the area was clear she felt far more confident about herself; she knew that she could comfortably defend herself from almost anything that came up. Clearing out of the alleyway, Cleo continued her journey home. It was dark now, truly dark, and although Cleo felt far safer than she had before she still moved quickly.


    The longer she walked, the more she felt that she had not dealt with all the threats that surrounded her. There was something... off about the way home. The way she was walking should have still had populated streets, but there was no one. It was like they had been driven off by something. She was being avoided, and this could only be done by someone with either terrifying power, or extremely great influence.


    The cobbles clicked as she walked through the main street towards Panwood lane. It was eerie, the clear streets and moon bleached houses seemed to stretch and loom over the girl as she quickened her pace once more. After a moment she stopped. At the end of a street there was a figure. Not much taller than her, the figure at the end of the street barred her way. The figure was masked, with a horned hood covering their head. A large pole-arm with a hammerhead on the end sat in their right hand, lending an imposing air to the whole tableau. The figure growled and pointed the hammer at Cleo. ¡°My men came to me, they said you attacked them. This must be rectified¡±.


    Cleo immediately summoned Fenrir into the street. The giant incandescent canine stood between her and the masked figure, growling menacingly at them. ¡°I defended myself. You can see that if I had wanted to kill them I could have easily with my elemental here. I let them go, so give me the same face I gave your men¡±.


    The masked figure raised their left hand and a chain made of pure light shot out, entwining Fenrir. With brute strength alone, the dog was pulled high into the sky, before being flung behind the man. He raised his hammer and immediately dived forwards ending a thrust at her neck mere centimetres from the intended target.


    Cleo flinched, and a sense of recognition surrounded her over the figure. She knew that posture, that strike. She had seen it recently, had admired it, and now she hated herself for it. The figure in front of her was without a doubt Law, but she could not help but feel aggrieved at the revelation. For a short time, she had idolised him, but now she was disgusted at herself, and at him. She was infuriated.


    Law could obviously see the flames of rage in her eyes, he leaned forward and whispered in her ear ¡°I understand you are in the right, and I will let you go soon. I must simply protect my own men from harm and set a message to those who would try to harm me through them. When I wear this mask I am not well liked, but I would like to discuss the finer points of the elements with you at another time. I wish to learn far more than I wish to kill¡±.


    Cleo could not help but feel something profoundly unsettling about the way that Law had said the word kill. It had carried such great blood lust that she could not help but fear for her life. She clenched her fists as the figure stepped behind her and the chain was retracted from her dog, there were footsteps, and then the world around her was silent. She stood still for several moments, adjusting to what she had experienced. There was something there, something inside Law that she still admired. His thirst for knowledge was obviously great, but his baleful aura was something she could not deal with. She had found her young demon, and she hated it.

 Chapter 80: Confrontation

    Second chapter releasing for this! If you want to read more then check out my website, and if you want to support me, hit me up on patreon!


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    Rushing back to the house, Cleo immediately walked past the two girls and curled up on the pallet furthest from the door. She hugged her legs and shook quietly, with the folder wrapped around her shins. It was hard, realising someone you had admired, even for a moment, was not what they seemed to be. She was angry at herself, and had no way to vent other than shut Law down. She had to stop him from hunting Rose ever again.


    She had to find out more, so she grabbed the folder and wrenched it open. She took a deep breath and began reading. The folder contained the compiled work that the men under Robert Anvale had done over the last year, since the festival of the dead. It was heavy, detailed and came down to five points; First, that there were two major figures during the deaths of that day, both children, and both were considered extremely dangerous. Second, unfortunately due to trauma by the survivors there were no real descriptions of either child. The only thing that was known was that two parts of the city were hit at the same time, so there was no way that all three events were done by the same person. Third, the child that attacked Panwood Lane was the one that fit Rose¡¯s description of the devourer, but the one that had committed the massacre in Rodah Vale and Spring Street was a much more physical killer. Unlike the charred husks that had been left behind, the corpses were all reminiscent of people having been crushed by trees. The two killers were on different ends of the spectrum when it came to death. Fourth, while the devourer had struck several more times since the festival, the other child had not shown up at all. There were many possible ideas about this, ranging from the idea that it was a massive reaction to a gang war, to an experiment by one of the clans that got out of control. They had no way of knowing, as the gangs themselves refused to co-operate whenever the bobbies tried. There was even a note from Captain Mallory about how his source inside Spring Street was unable to tell him anything. They simply could not give out information on that particular case. The final point that was made clear in the folder was that there was definitely some involvement with the clans. They had stuck their hands in the pie that was the run down areas of Spirit, and now the less desirable members of society were paying for it.


    She was about to delve deeper into the hoard of information when Winoa called over. ¡°Cleo!¡± she yelled, ¡°Rose seems to be having a panic attack, give me a hand!¡± the girl was shaking far harder than Cleo had been earlier, her breathing was irregular and short. She had a far-away look in her eyes, and tears were streaming down her face. It was not pretty, but trauma never was. The two girls surrounded Rose and whispered calmly and quietly, making sure that there was nothing too intense for Rose to have to deal with.


    Cleo left Rose with Winoa for a moment, to grab a kettle and teapot. She had no idea why, but redweed tea had a much greater effect on Rose than it had on a normal person, so she grabbed a handful, threw it in the pot and summoned her flame to begin boiling some water. She poured some tea into a cup, then pulled some heat out of the cup and presented it to Rose. The girl took the cup and held it, absentmindedly holding it, she took a couple of sips before some colour returned to her face. For the rest of the night, the two girls took turns looking over Rose to make sure she was alright. When the morning rolled around, both of them were tired from being so attentive, but Rose was a lot better.


    As soon as she was able, Cleo got up and stormed off to the Empty Throne school. The entire way there, she was fuming with a rage that had gestated over an entire night of stressful work. After hammering against the door, a very surprised groundskeeper of the school came to meet her.


    ¡°Where is Jim?¡± Cleo demanded.


    ¡°Who? I¡¯m afraid I don¡¯t know who you¡¯re talking about¡±. Cleo could not tell if the man was telling the truth or stonewalling her. She channelled mana into her fist and then slammed it into the door, making the whole thing shake with her Saint level strength.


    ¡°Jim, the guy with the pieces of paper near the arena yesterday¡±.


    ¡°Oh the betting boy?¡± The groundskeeper responded, flinching slightly at the girl after she hit the door. ¡°I believe he lives in Spring Street, do you want to leave a message? I could give it to his friend who goes here, Law¡±.


    Cleo gave the man a glare before saying ¡°Don¡¯t bother. I¡¯ll meet him myself¡±. She walked off, ignoring anything else that the groundskeeper had to say. She knew she could not take on Law, he was simply too strong, so instead she would give his friend a piece of her mind. She walked briskly towards Spring Street. It was a long walk, but she would still get there comfortably for around midday. Each stride allowed the rage to fester even more. She was fuming. How could they? She thought. How could they lie like that? How could they treat another human being like that? How could they chase Rose like she was some sort of prize to be hunted and won?


    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.


    The sun rose to its apex, and by the time it was a little past one in the afternoon, she had reached the street. She walked down the road, pounding on each door and questioning the people coming out of each home or building until finally she reached an abandoned bakery. She pounded against the door and there was no answer, but she heard movement behind the door. Taking a step back she shouted ¡°I know you¡¯re behind the door. If you do not open this door in the next ten seconds I will blow it up. I am in no mood to argue¡±. She gritted her teeth and waited, then after there was no response, she began counting out loud. ¡°One. Two. Three...¡±


    ¡°Alright, alright,¡± said a voice behind the door. The door creaked open and a child a few years older than Cleo stood to answer her. ¡°What do you want?¡±


    ¡°Jim. Does he live here?¡±


    The boy swore. ¡°What¡¯s Jim done now?¡± He pressed against a symbol on the side of the door and began speaking into it. ¡°Jim, come to the front entrance of the HQ, there¡¯s a very angry young girl outside who wants to talk to you. Will that be everything?¡±


    ¡°Yes¡±.


    After about five minutes, Jim walked out of the building and a flash of confusion streaked across his face when he saw Cleo. ¡°Hi Cleo, I thought you were going to wait until I got back to you?¡±


    ¡°That was before I met Law in the street and discovered he is the monster we were looking for. How could you do that to us? To Rose? It makes me sick¡±.


    ¡°Look, Cleo, I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re talking about. I can vouch for the fact that Law is not the devourer. Sure he¡¯s monstrously powerful, sure he¡¯s a bit crazy, and sure he¡¯s remorseless, but he¡¯s not the devourer. I know because I met him six months before the devourer¡¯s attacks began happening, and he was with me for the biggest one. Now calm down. I will help you, but Laurence is not your target¡±.


    ¡°Is that his real name?¡± Cleo said, slightly taken aback. She was not sure how to really react to Jim. In just a couple of sentences, he had taken the wind from her sails, and completely drained her anger towards Law. She could only really smooth her dress and hope that Jim would still help her.


    ¡°Yeah. He¡¯s Laurence Absolution, my best friend, and a very broken human being, but definitely not the devourer¡±.


    ¡°He¡¯s an Absolution clansman?¡± Cleo frowned. It did not make him any less likely to be the killer, but it did make her more hesitant to believe that he would kill in the way that the devourer had. Everyone had heard the tales of the great killer of the Absolution clan, and how he had killed. She rubbed her temples, now she really had no leads. She had no idea who it could have been. She could do nothing but apologise to Jim and return home. It was infuriating to her, but she was no closer to the answer to the problem than she had been at the beginning of the day.


    She sat back down on her bedding and sighed as she began flicking through the folder once more. She ran through what Captain Mallory had written about the devourer, the nature of each corpse, and what had actually happened to them, and she could not help but gasp. The killer was sucking the very souls out of each of his targets, an abhorrent act to Cleo. She flicked to the final page and looked at Mallory¡¯s notes. Immediately she gasped, the last line of the section was ¡®I cannot help but assume that the perpetrator is one of Mephisto origin. A golden child, which means we can only give this to the clan itself and let them deal with it. The only clue we have to go on is the red hair¡±. Immediately a face and a name sprang to mind. She growled in fury as she thought of the person, the child who had once defended her from the person she was trying to save now. Peter, golden child of the Mephisto clan.

 Chapter 81: Preparation

    I finally have a cover for the book! A very kind person went out of his way to give me a cover to use for Royal Road, and has done so for all three books in the series. I''m extremely thankful to him. This is the last chapter you''re getting before Friday, but there''s only a few chapters left before book 1 is complete!


    #####


    ¡°Winoa!¡± Cleo shouted, her voice cracking through the comparative silence of the room. ¡°I know who the devourer is!¡±


    ¡°What?¡± Winoa and Rose both looked up from the food they were cooking in the kitchen of their little home.


    ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re not going to believe it. We know him, I¡¯m pretty sure.¡±


    ¡°Why¡¯s that?¡± Rose inquired. Her heart in her mouth. One of the reasons why she was so terrified was that she had no idea who the devourer, her stalker, actually was. If she could put a face to the beast, then it would be far less of an unknown evil to her.


    ¡°The clue for me was that he had been following you up Babel the entire time, he was hunting for you specifically. Maybe it was your friend, Willis, he could have been looking for, but when Willis disappeared the attacks did not stop. In fact, they are slowly increasing again. The person he was looking for was you, Rose.¡±


    Both girls put down their cooking implements and moved over to Cleo. this was simply too important for either of them to miss hearing. ¡°The second point, the one that solidified who it was, is that he is a male child who is a member of the Mephisto clan. Does that ring any bells?¡±


    Winoa frowned, she was having slightly more trouble than Cleo had to remember who amongst their batch were the golden children of the Mephistos. Rose on the other hand immediately looked at Cleo with wide eyes. ¡°Are you sure?¡± She said. Her fists tightly clenching Cleo¡¯s blue dress, ¡°are you sure it¡¯s Peter?¡±


    ¡°About as sure as I can be of anything else. He¡¯s the only person I can think of from any of the clans who is both studying the book of Death and has an unhealthy obsession with you. He¡¯s probably been chasing you since we left the first floor¡±. Cleo paused, then flinched slightly as she leant forward and began stroking Rose¡¯s hair. ¡°Rose, I''m sorry for enabling this by not shutting Peter down on the first floor. I know I could have¡±.


    ¡°No. Thank you, Cleo. You are helping me even though I was awful to you¡±. Rose smiled earnestly at Cleo. It was the first time that Cleo or Winoa had actually seen the girl happy. ¡°I brought this on myself. I should have listened to my mother and just broken him when I had the chance. So what now?¡±


    ¡°Now we see a couple of boys I know about trapping a monster¡±.


    The three girls left the house together for the first time, with their faces full of determination. The afternoon was bright and clear, with none of the unhealthy aura from the previous night. Cleo led them straight to Spring Street, as she had more faith that he would be contactable than Law in the high walls and deep gardens of the Empty Throne school. She also had a feeling that Law was involved Jim''s gang on Spring Street. The mask he had been wearing carried the same mark as the one the would-be thieves had worn, and Jim had been emblazoned with the same mark both times she had met him.


    Knocking on the door to the bashers HQ again, Cleo stood and waited for the door to open. After two minutes she realised that the does were once again not going to open, so she hammered away like before. Soon enough, the same boy who had answered the door before opened up and glared at her. ¡°Are you here to see Jim again?¡± He said, glancing over the party of young girls before him.


    ¡°Yes. Either bring him to us, or call him again. We have something to discuss that will benefit you guys as much as us¡±.


    The boy pressed down on the array near the door and for the second time that day called for Jim. Within five minutes Jim had arrived and brought them inside the hallway that led into the Spring Street headquarters. They walked for a couple of minutes before entering a side room with a large table in the centre. Eight chairs were set round the oval table, and of those eight, three were currently filled.


    Cleo did not recognise two of the seated occupants, a boy and a girl, but she could not help but recognise the third occupant. Sitting at the table, fiddling with some kind of plant shaped gem and constricting a complex array at the same time was Law. It was the second time Cleo had met Law out of his uniform, but the first time she had actually been able to look at him up close. He looked so innocent when he was focussing on his creation that it was hard to believe he had put the fear of god into her merely the previous night.


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    ¡°Okay girls, this is my team of friends, my crew if you will. From the left, we have Louisa, her... something, Yun, and Law you know. Why don''t you introduce yourselves and tell us what you need our help for,¡± said Jim.


    ¡°My name is Cleopatra Tiberian Ignis, I am a golden child of the Ignis clan and I worked out who the devourer is. Behind me are Winoa Zephyr and Rose Briar, two more golden children of the elemental clans of Chaos¡±. At the mention of the devourer, Yun¡¯s had perked up. Louise began paying attention after Yun did, and Law nodded along as he made what ever he was making.


    ¡°How did you work it out? We''ve been looking for him for the best part of a year,¡± said Yun. He looked shocked that a girl who looked younger than him was able to do something he could not.


    ¡°I admit, we had two bits of information you could have never known which gave us the answer, but either way we need your help to catch him¡±. Cleo ignored everyone else as she said this, looking straight at the boy who seemed like he was not paying attention.


    Law began the final array mark on the gem, and Cleo stopped. She could tell that his array work was exquisite, despite only having trained in the miniscule amount of arrays that the Ignis clan actually used.


    The mark sank into the body of the sculpture and the entire thing glowed momentarily before dimming into a soft red gemstone in the shape of a freshly bloomed flower. When the creation was complete, Laurence placed it into a velvet case with twenty other flowers just like it. He closed the case and looked at the three girls standing next to the table. ¡°I was going to look for you tomorrow anyway, but now that you are here, you have made my life a lot easier. I¡¯ll help, but if we have everyone here helping, catching the devourer will be simple for us¡±. He slid the box towards Cleo. ¡°This box is full of twenty-one individual creations of mine. I call them inferno flowers. If you place at least three of them into the ground , then the area in the middle will have all the oxygen inside it ignite for as long as there are living beings inside. That¡¯s an apology for frightening you last night. Jim told me about it¡±.


    Cleo smiled slightly. She had not expected to receive anything from Law, let alone an apology. So when the box slid towards her, she could not help but be surprised. She walked up to the table and addressed the people presented. ¡°The name of the devourer is Pter Mephisto. He¡¯s a golden child of my generation, and very likely a peak Saint. As a member of the Mephisto clan, he specialises in dealing with the soul, and death in general. Other than that, I cannot tell you much about his capabilities¡±.


    ¡°What else can you say?¡± Said the boy with white hair, Yun, they had called him. All four of the people in the room freely gave off domineering auras, but Yun¡¯s was by far the most animalistic. He worried Cleo.


    ¡°We know what Peter is looking for. He has an obsession with Rose, the girl with green hair behind me. For the last two years he has been hunting her, He¡¯s the reason why I kind of went mad yesterday. He¡¯s a hateful human being. I don¡¯t know how we should go about this, but I think he would move mountains to get her under his thumb¡±.


    ¡°There¡¯s seven of us, and if we put Rose in one of his current hunting grounds we will have six people to be in the area around her,¡± Jim said, ¡°If Law is there, and can put an array on us that might somehow hide our auras, then we should easily be able to surround him and pen him in¡±.


    ¡°Do you think we will be able to pen him in safely?¡± Winoa said.


    ¡°You may not have noticed, miss, but all of the people in this room are Saints. Together we can easily deal with any single Saint that we come across. Any more questions?¡±


    ¡°What if he comes across one of you while he¡¯s looking for me?¡± Said Rose. ¡°What if he picks you off one by one?¡±


    ¡°He won¡¯t,¡± Yun replied. His confidence surprised the girls, ¡°He won¡¯t beat me at least¡±.

 Chapter 82: Final Meetings

    Laurence¡¯s legs swung beneath him as he sat on the wall. He wondered whether Peter would be coming his way or Yun¡¯s. He smiled absentmindedly. Somewhere along the line he had begun picking up friends, followers. He had not intended to meet so many people, but now there were six helping him catch an irritant that had been rubbing against his gang for over a year.


    The devourer had eaten away at some of Spring Street¡¯s higher end thugs, simply leaving corpses in most cases. It was unfortunate for Laurence, as he would normally not care much about random killings, but the people he was avenging were all family to him. Spring Street was a family to Laurence. Over the time he had been part of spring street, Laurence had learned that the people who he was with were as close to him as a family. They were comrades in arms, whose lives were of real material importance to Laurence. It was an odd feeling to him, and every time he heard about another one of the Spring Street boys and girls being struck down by Peter, he could feel the rage building inside him. He could feel his very soul split.


    He took a deep breath. Even just the thought of it could set him off sometimes. He had not quite reached the point where his switch was flipped, at least not since the time he fought the Arrows, and Roy. All he could really do until Peter entered the net was continue to swing his feet and kick the wall underneath him. He was lucky he was good at waiting for things. He knew that was never Jim¡¯s strong point, so he wondered how his friend would fare in the waiting game that they had to perform.


    As he sat there, wondering what he would do with his nemesis when he met him, his Babelian ring lit up. He touched the ring on his index finger with his thumb and immediately he heard Louisa on the other side. ¡°Law, I can see Peter. He¡¯s running on the north side side of the net, in your direction. I¡¯ll get in contact with everyone else so we can begin closing the net around him, but heads up¡±.


    ¡°Thanks¡±. Laurence let go of his ring and it dimmed. He knew that Louisa was situated on his left side, so he began moving in her direction. He sprung over the roofs of the city, watching the paths below him, searching for a boy with red hair. After around thirty seconds of scanning he saw a hooded individual who fit the right height to be Peter. As the figure dipped down an alley in the direction of the building that held Rose, he leapt into the road to follow him. Darting down the alley, he sprinted after Peter but as the figure reached the end of the alleyway he seemed to split into three figures, each with varying strengths of aura. The auras that all three gave off were flickering between the strength of a Saint and a normal man, but they were not stabilising equally. Laurence had to make a snap decision so he pressed the ring and thought of Jim.


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    ¡°Jim. Peter seemed to split into three separate figures I can only reasonably follow one, but the other two are going in your direction¡±. He sprinted after the one to the left and hoped that by the time that he caught up to the first person, they would catch up to the other two. He followed the Peter copy into a crowd and almost lost him, but his hood fell off just as he left the crowd, allowing Laurence to see the flash of red exiting the swarm.


    Pushing the bystanders out of the way, Laurence began pumping mana into his legs and quickly began catching up to Peter. He was about a hundred metres from Peter when his ring glowed once more. Touching the ring, he heard Jim¡¯s voice blare into his ears.


    ¡°Law, the two people you said were coming to me never showed up. There¡¯s no way they could have disappeared, I have six crews running as my eyes and none of them saw him come my way¡±.


    Laurence swore. ¡°I thought we were going to do this without using any of the gang? He has been going after the family, so we were keeping them out to keep them safe. Do I need to tell you again?¡±


    ¡°It¡¯s fine. The two other Peters have just disappeared. It¡¯s like they never existed in the first place¡±.


    Laurence kept following Peter, step after step, he mirrored him and quickly began catching up. Peter turned a corner, and as Laurence moved round the corner as well he felt something in the air brush past him. There was a screaming sound as an adult skull sped past Laurence''s face. He slammed to a standstill the moment his body turned into the new alley proper. There was a change in the airflow and Laurence ducked, letting the skull that had passed by him go over his head. In the middle of the alley stood a thin boy in a dark robe. His red hair was like a fiery streak in the twilight of the city. Floating around the boy was a set of three malevolent looking skulls. They chattered as they span in circles around his body, each one letting off a slightly different sense of danger to Laurence.


    ¡°Why are you following me?¡± Said Peter. The boy''s¡¯ voice was truly unsettling. It grated against Laurence¡¯s ears like nails on a chalkboard. He smiled a sickly smile, ¡°And who actually are you?¡±


    Laurence summoned his hammer. ¡°You made two mistakes when you came to Spirit. You should have never touched the men and women of Spring Street, and you should have given up on the girl, Rose. Now it¡¯s time for you to pay the price¡±.

 Chapter 83: Ignition

    The baleful aura that surrounded Peter thickened as he focused on Laurence. In return, Laurence¡¯s aura of absolute power seemed to rush about and batter back the deathly miasma. Their strengths of will were equivalent, both being peak existences in the Saint rank. Both children, born merely six months apart, were stronger than a hundred normal men, and their auras represented that.


    The black miasma that surrounded Peter began making the area around him decay. The plants that were sprouting out of the dirt and cobble in the alleyway began wilting, browning, and soon just turning to dust in the presence of the boy. He had a truly unsettling sense of death around him. In contrast, Laurence had the scarlet aura of a wild animal poised to murder. It was not as insidious as Peter''s, but held more danger behind it. If Peter''s aura was akin to a morgue, then Laurence¡¯s was like a pack of hungry wolves.


    The two of them stood in the alley, facing each other and waiting to see who the first to act would be, who the first to show weakness would be. Laurence blinked and noticed a slight deviation in Peter''s aura. It was like Peter was inviting him in. He knew it was likely done sorry of trap, but he had to spring it. They would stand in that alley staying at each other for days otherwise.


    He leapt in, hammer held level in his palms, and began to spin the head like a drill. Thrusting forwards, the spinning spearhead dove towards Peter, but Peter simply sent out two of the skulls to meet it. Metal hit bone and there was a screeching crunch, but Laurence could move no further forwards. In response to Peter''s two skulls blockading Laurence, he used the still spinning hammerhead as a pivot and rode the momentum of his own weapon. Flipping over with the spin of the hammer, Laurence landed less than a metre away from Peter and continued using his momentum to throw a punch towards the boy.


    Over the last year Laurence had spent all his time learning and mastering various martial arts with three goals in mind. The first was to become stronger, the second was to craft his own martial style, and the third was for him to be able to use his entire body and surroundings as a weapon. As the punch swung towards Peter, the third skull appeared in Laurence¡¯s way and blocked his fist. There was a burning sensation against his skin, but he ignored it in order to pivot once more and kick out at Peter. A flash of shock passed over Peter''s face as Laurence¡¯s leg collided with his ribs, but it was quickly replaced by a calculated calmness. He obviously refused to show Laurence how much damage he had actually done with that strike.


    They both retreated a few steps before facing each other again. Laurence could have continued to attack, but he wanted to continue sizing up his opponent before he committed to a series of strikes that might leave himself too open. Peter, on the other hand was beginning to realise he may have underestimated the boy in front of him. They were obviously well matched, but Peter was was less committed to fighting, which meant he would be less likely to commit to double edged attacks. Laurence had a vendetta, and he would not rest until he had fixed the problem that was Peter Mephisto.


    Laurence saw that Peter was beginning to retreat and decided it was a perfect chance to test out his Inferno Flowers in real combat. He pulled a flower out of his bag that was always by his side and threw it into the ground behind Peter. Peter saw something flash by, but as there was no immediate reaction behind him, he did not look, as looking would leave himself open. The second time a flower flashed past him, one of the skulls tried to intercept, but the artifacts were to small and they slipped by. The third flower thrown hit the ground at Peter''s feet, something he was not expecting, and so he could not block it. Laurence smirked as Peter frowned at the gem flowers that had been embedded into the ground. He could see the cogs whirring in Peter''s head as to what they were, but it was impossible for Peter to know without using them. He could see and understand the arrays on the flowers, but could not see how a simple array synchronising the flowers and one increasing the power of fire in the area would help.


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    He did not have to wait long for his answer. The air began to ripple around a second after all three had been stuck in the ground and mere moments later the entire area within the triangle Laurence had created immolated. Flames sprung high into the sky, and yet Laurence could not help but frown. Yes, there were flames but they were in no way as hot as he was expecting. For the inferno flowers to be a real wall against Peter they needed to be hundreds of times hotter than the soft red triangle that he had created.


    The cloak that Peter wore ignited as the flames around the boy burned, but he looked confused at Laurence. To Peter it looked like whatever his opponent was trying to do had failed, so he laughed and walked towards the older boy. As he walked out of the fire, the only things that were left undamaged were the leather armour on his body and the rings on his fingers.


    ¡°I liked that cowl,¡± Peter growled, ¡°I think I¡¯ll replace it with your skin¡±. Two tubes of fluid appeared in his hands and he threw them at Laurence as quickly as they appeared. The vials shattered as Peter pulled his hands together and a wave of fluid spread towards Laurence. Laurence spun his hammer, and whipped it out of the way, but a few specks landed on his forearm and he felt the flesh sizzle. The skin that had only been slightly touched by the fluid immediately began necrotizing and spreading. Without a second thought Laurence let go of the hammer and it spiralled towards Peter. He pulled his hand up and immediately cut the quickly blackening skin on his left arm with a blade of mana. As the skin flicked off his arm it almost immediately decayed into dust and a slightly putrid smell. He growled as Peter moved out of the way of his hammer and threw out a fourth flower.


    The fourth flower flew through the air and slid into place around fifty metres above both boys. Immediately the fire turned from the soft red glow that it had been into a thick bar of white light. The heat of the fire warped the very air, morphing and warping the light around it. Peter shouted out in shock as the heat behind him scalded his back. The sudden heat had shifted his attention, and covered Laurence¡¯s opening, giving him an opportunity of his own. He activated Inklight and sent a spiral whip round Peter¡¯s ankle, upending Peter on the ground. Resummoning his hammer, he cleft down towards Peter¡¯s legs, aiming for the boy''s abdomen. Peter rolled out of the way and a small pouch appeared in his hands. He immediately tossed out the bag and clapped his hands together once more. Like the vials it split and dust scattered towards Laurence. This time he had no chance to avoid the substance that was being thrown at him, so instead he ignited his hammer to the highest temperature it would go, and burned up everything between the two boys. The ground cracked and dirt crumbled as the heat intensified, the powder ashed and did not even have a chance to connect with Laurence¡¯s body.


    Rolling away once more, Peter smashed a third vial into the ground. The cracked and burnt soil began bubbling and melting around Laurence¡¯s feet. He copied Peter¡¯s action and stepped back away from the decomposing ground. He raised his blade and drove it towards Peter once more. The blade sprung forwards and slammed straight into Peter¡¯s throat. Immediately Laurence pulled his blade out and stepped back. The corpse that used to be Peter writhed on the ground for a moment then stopped. Normally after a person died, they would shake as they died, and then stop, but Peter did not stop. The faces of screaming souls tried to pull themselves out of his body as he shook, a few faces Laurence even recognised. Eventually the shaking stopped and Peter stood up. He smiled, wiped the blood off his neck, and pulled out two more vials of fluid.

 Chapter 84: Binding

    Hey all! I forgot to upload here for a week or two >_> Correcting that now.


    Chapter 86, here I come!


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    ¡°You know you can¡¯t kill me,¡± Peter said. He flicked the vials in his hands into the air and placed his palms together once more. The vials split apart and a new fluid came into the air. As it approached Laurence the fluid quickly became a large gas cloud that filled the alleyway. Laurence stepped back, but as he did, Peter lobbed another small bag and clapped to split it apart. From the front and above, Laurence was blocked. The only thing he could do was retreat.


    Before, when he whipped apart the dust and fluid clouds, he could hold them off with a simple spiral of his hammer. Now he was not so confident. The dust and fluids all seemed lethal to him, and unlike Peter, Laurence could not just come back to life after being a death blow. This did not mean he could not be beaten. Laurence could just not quite work out how to finish it yet. The fog moved forwards and Peter pulled out two more bags of dust. He smirked and threw them into the cloud then clapped and watched as the cloud split into three colours. As the colours rippled through the cloud and reached the ground, they tore apart the dirt and walls either side. One dust necrotized, one dust melted, and one dust decomposed. Either way, there was nothing that could keep standing after the cloud moved Laurence¡¯s way.


    ¡°Why are you even bothering? If you cannot kill me, you cannot stop me. I will find her. She¡¯s my little Rose. My...¡± He paused for a moment. ¡°She¡¯s my songbird. She has such a lovely voice, truly one of a kind. That¡¯s why I want to keep her. Can¡¯t you understand? I just... I just want her to be... all mine¡±. He trailed off, looking wistful for a moment.


    ¡°But she doesn¡¯t want it. That¡¯s the reason why my friends got the information on you. That¡¯s how we set up this trap¡±. Laurence smiled. It was a twisted grin, one full of rage. ¡°And now you¡¯re going to pay. If I can¡¯t kill you. I¡¯m going to make sure you get back to your family. Your clan can deal with you without any arms or legs. You¡¯re going to pay for breaking my men¡±. He raised Jormugand and began spinning the hammer around him in a figure eight. The cloud closed in on the older boy, but as the speed of his hammer increased it began to split around him. The wind and dust whipped around Laurence¡¯s form as his hammer got quicker and quicker. Within seconds it was like there were two thick wheels acting as a shield for Laurence from the poisonous cloud that had surrounded him. The more he span, the quicker it dispersed into the walls and the floor, and even back towards Peter. Peter smirked. He had nowhere to run, but Laurence could see that he did not mind wasting a few more souls, especially not if they were connected to Laurence.


    Finally, after most of the dust had dispersed, Laurence sprung at Peter. His hammer still spinning and rage building. The boy in front of him was so arrogant, so willfully ignorant. He would not listen to Laurence, so Laurence did the one thing he knew how to. He would crush him under his hammer. As Laurence reached within reasonable range he screamed the word ¡°Gamaliel!¡± and twisted the hammer high in the air. It ignited as he span the great weapon and slammed it into Peter. The blade slid through Peter¡¯s right shoulder and leg before he had a chance to react, and then smashed into the ground, causing the entire area to tremor. Shards of thoroughly damaged dirt and stone sprung into the air and covered Peter as the flesh around his now severed arm and leg steamed and stank.


    Peter screamed and bit his own tongue, blood bubbling out of his mouth as he laughed and choked on it. The fetid dirt covered him and burned at his skin, letting the untouched flesh and muscle bubble up and weep pus. The child of Mephisto was covered in varying hues of sickness, blacks, purples, greens, greys, even browns and reds. There was no hope for him, but that just made Laurence feel angrier. He already knew that the worst thing he could do in the fight was kill the boy, but then he had an idea. Peter was not dead yet, which meant that Laurence could still keep him from harming Rose and his gang again. All he had to do was run to the main outpost of the Mephisto clan and deliver the troublemaker to them. He hoped they would have plans and punishments in place for when a golden child stepped out of line like Peter had.


    Wrapping the boy in Inklight, Laurence dragged him out of the alleyway, momentarily stopping to pick up his Inferno Flowers as he left. He leapt up to the roof of a low building and began swinging the golden cocoon that held Peter around like a ball and chain. He could not risk letting the boy near him, even in the state that he was in. Peter was simply too dangerous an individual.


    Laurence picked up the pace as his friends came close. ¡°Don¡¯t come near me!¡± he shouted at Cleo, who came closest to him. ¡°I have Peter captive, but he¡¯s still a threat. I¡¯m taking him to his clan to be punished¡±.


    ¡°Can¡¯t you... just kill him?¡± Cleo shouted back.


    Laurence laughed, ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. Only his family can deal with him at the moment¡±. He moved off, touching his ring and notifying Jim, Yun and Louisa about the situation with Peter. He knew he had to be quick, but the Mephisto stronghold kilometres away. It was highly likely that Peter would try to make an escape attempt before he arrived, but there was nothing Laurence could do about that other than be prepared. He began dragging mana out of his reservoir and pumping it into his muscles. Streams of energy rippled through his muscles as he sprung from the rooftop he was perched on. The roof tiles cracked and exploded as he shot off towards the home of Peter¡¯s clan.


    Each step crushed the roof of a house, but sent Laurence shooting off towards the north of the city. He sprung from rooftop to rooftop with the cocoon that held Peter swinging round him like a satellite, and quickly made work of the massive distance between the alleyway he had cornered Peter in and the Mephisto home. A sense of danger tickled the back of Laurence¡¯s neck as the citadel itself came into sight. His highly trained sense of threat was on overdrive, and it was coming from the cocoon. He growled, he was so close, and yet so far. He needed to hold on for a bit longer, so he began pumping mana into his arms as well as his legs and spinning the cocoon round him quicker. There was a slight cracking sound, but he closed in on the building, before finally slamming into the ground mid swing. He could see Peter trying to desperately push his way out of the cocoon, his arms and legs visible as the young boy stretched the rope beyond the area of the ball he had been wrapped in. Giving the satellite one last swing, he shifted Inklight from its solid form to its pure light form and retracted it back into his hand, letting Peter slam into the high wall of the Mephisto citadel in a cloud of dust and brick. The detritus from the wall spread and obscured Peter from Laurence¡¯s vision, but the sense of danger did not dissipate. He summoned Jormugand into his hand once more and held it horizontally in front of him. ¡°Yesod...¡± he whispered to himself and stared into the slowly retreating cloud.


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    As he stared he saw Peter, still alive and much angrier than he had been before. The aura of death was thicker round him now, like his strength had been increased by the times he had been killed by Laurence. ¡°Why do you keep trying to kill me? You can see it¡¯s pointless. I won¡¯t die permanently, and you can¡¯t stop me otherwise¡±. His teeth were clenched as he pushed out the words he spoke.


    ¡°It¡¯s simple. I think you¡¯re bluffing. I think it¡¯s hard to kill you, likely hard enough for it to be impossible for me to complete, but that is not why I¡¯m doing it. I¡¯m letting your family deal with you¡±. Laurence smirked as Peter looked around himself and his face dropped. This was obviously not somewhere he wanted to be. As Laurence expected, rather than just go in quietly, Peter acted out, and charged towards him once more. Rather than the vials he had been using beforehand, he pulled out a large fan and another bag. The skulls appeared around him once more and he screamed out.


    ¡°I refuse to go home!¡± His bag flew out and burst as the fan opened, scattering another coloured powder into the fray. He pushed two skulls through the dust and began waving the metal edged fan in Laurence¡¯s direction. Thick gusts of wind propelled the cloud in Laurence¡¯s direction, but now they were in a much more open region. Laurence injected mana into his legs and sprung around the cloud, darting towards Peter and away from the skulls.


    In response, Peter¡¯s empty left hand made a sweeping motion to the right and the skulls followed, cutting off Laurence¡¯s path. He waved the fan and diverted the cloud, letting it move towards the right rather than straight ahead. Pulling another bag of dust out of thin air, he tossed it to the right of Laurence and clapped against the fan, cutting off Laurence¡¯s right side from escape. There were only two ways that Peter could see of Laurence getting out, the rear and above, both of which he had planned for. However that was when Laurence surprised him.


    The skulls moved closer to Laurence and he sprung into motion. He began rotating like a spinning top in a similar way to the way he had moved at the beginning of the fight, but with much more power behind it. The skull closed in and tried to bite down on Laurence¡¯s right hand, but before it could connect the hand was no longer there. Laurence had spun ahead and his hammer was arcing back into the side of the skull. It split into fragments as his spiral path continued. He picked up speed and slammed his hammer into the second skull, which followed the first into dust, but still he did not stop. He span closer to Peter, and his momentum became greater and greater, until he reached the third skull. He crushed the third skull and kept going, the shards of bone flying past his rotating form.


    As he reached Peter, the younger boy brandished his fan and swung towards Laurence¡¯s head. As Laurence dipped out of the way, Peter closed his fan and cleft down with all his strength in an attempt to break the momentum that the older boy had built up. The fan slammed against Laurence¡¯s side and there was a crack as one of his bones broke, but still he did not stop. He wrapped around the fan and spun up using Peter¡¯s arm as a guide. Their eyes met as Laurence passed Peter, both boy¡¯s filled with rage as the other refused to let them do what they intended.


    Laurence spun past Peter and whipped the handle of the hammer around his opponent, barring him from moving forwards. He leapt and landed straight onto Peters calves and there was a cracking sound as the bones gave way under the force of the older child. Peter tipped forwards and landed on the ground, face down in the dirt screaming.


    Laurence pulled out five break talismans from his bag and slapped them on peter to bind him to that spot then waited for someone to come out of the citadel. He was not waiting long. Around five minutes after the fighting stopped, a man in his twenties walked out of the hole that Peter had made in the wall and saw the situation. Without even asking what had happened he ran back into the citadel and brought out an older man, one that Laurence recognised. He was the man who had come and picked up the corpses on the day of the Festival of the Dead.


    ¡°Young boy, I recognise you. Why have you and your... opponent decided to destroy the outer wall of my home?¡± The man had a smile on him that did not quite reach his eyes. It was a face Laurence recognised because it was one he made often. It was one when he felt like he should smile, but did not understand the need. It was a facade, and it put him on edge. The old man was far more dangerous than anyone he had met in recent history.


    ¡°You came to pick up a large amount of corpses from my friends last year, but that is not why I am here. The boy that I am currently sitting on is known as the devourer. He¡¯s a wanted criminal, responsible for the Festival of the dead last year and a slew of killings since then¡±.


    The old man cut him off. ¡°That¡¯s a falsehood, and we both know why¡±.


    ¡°No sir, it¡¯s not. He might not have been responsible for the entirety of the festival, but it was when he started his killing spree. He has been sucking out the souls of hundreds of the citizens of Spirit, and I am here to gift him to you¡±. Laurence wiped his forehead as mud, sweat and blood began irritating his skin. He was filthy and tired. He needed to end this quickly.


    ¡°Sucking out the souls you say? Wait, why is he my problem?¡±


    ¡°The boy under me is one Peter Mephisto, golden child of your clan. He seems to be practicing some art that makes it near impossible for me to stop him, let alone kill him. So my only option was to give him to you to deal with. He¡¯s been making your clan look bad, sir, and I assume there are methods for you to deal with that. I just want him to stop killing members of my gang¡±.


    The older man stood still when he heard that the boy on the ground was Peter. He knew who Peter was, but to not only see the boy with such a thick aura of death around him, but also a boy not much older sitting on top of him having bested the child made him extremely surprised. ¡°You say he has been here for a year? By Babel¡¯s eye... Alright, we will take him¡±. The man lifted Laurence off Peter¡¯s body, and hoisted him over his shoulder. ¡°You are a very interesting... and dangerous child. Dominus clan?¡±


    ¡°No. Though my daddy is someone you¡¯ve probably heard of, Angus Absolution¡±. The old man¡¯s face paled as he heard the name.

 Chapter 85: Musings On A Rooftop

    ¡°So what are you going to do now?¡± Laurence said as he lay on the rooftop next to Cleo and Jim. He was still caked in the waste from his battle with Peter, but he was too tired to deal with it. He just wanted to rest and relax without thinking about dealing with anything of substance for a few days.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know. Do you know much about the Ignis clan, Law?¡± Cleo said, her copper hair grey in the moonlight that bathed the city. Law liked her, she was forthright, honest and decent. It was a far cry from what he was, but he did not care. He could not care really, because he wanted more people he liked around him. Helping those he was friends with gave him focus to get better. It gave him a drive that he would not have had, and allowed to realign his boundless curiosity. He still wanted to know how Peter had managed to survive and heal like he had, but he did not think he would be able to find out without getting a copy of the Book of Death. He knew that now it was time for his journey to change focus slightly. When he mastered the Book Creation he would begin learning anew. He would pick up another path that the world gave him and he would devour it, like Peter had devoured souls. He did not want to read the books to become an immortal. He simply wanted to read the books to learn their contents. But now he knew, that there were other things that he could learn than just what the books showed him. He could find out about the worlds he walked through, the people he was with, the lives of the men women and children who had come before him. He knew that without a doubt the world was a far more interesting place than he had ever given it credit for, and now he would start anew, with this girl who sat beside him. He would learn her. He would consume her information, and then he would see where it took him, but to begin that path he had to listen.


    ¡°Sorry what was that?¡± He said, turning to face Cleo properly. This would be a challenge for him, but it was one that he would happily face. He would learn all about all his friends. He would not let them just become nameless faces consumed by a soul devouring monster child. He would never let that happen to anyone he valued.


    ¡°I said do you know much about the Ignis clan, Law?¡±


    ¡°No, sorry, please tell me¡±.


    ¡°It¡¯s pretty simple really. The elemental clans had a problem a long time ago. There were simply too many of us, and we were beginning to out-populate the pocket dimensions that house the elemental clans. It was an odd state of affairs, but there was nothing that we could really do about it. So one day the leaders of the four clans come together and decide that they will set down a missive, that no family from this day forwards would be allowed to have more than three children. If someone broke the rule, they would be exiled with the fourth child, and the first three would be adopted by the clan in general. They would become what was known as ¡®saved children¡¯. The child that was exiled would become a lost child, born to wander Babel and never truly know their homeland. If they ever did try to get back into the clan, they were to be killed on sight. It was a tough law, but times were hard. Families in general came to only have one or two children, because they were afraid of an accident invoking the terror that was permanently leaving the family fold.


    ¡°Now, after maybe... ten cycles my family decided that they would rescind part of the law. They decided that it was unfair for a child to be cast out for a crime that they had no control over, so they decided that the fourth child would be allowed to stay in the clan. I don¡¯t know if they hoped that it would allow for the child to be taken in and treated like the first three children, but instead they... I... was treated like an outcast anyway. I was given nothing, so I worked for everything I got. I became a golden child while barely having access to the Book of Chaos, and so I don¡¯t really have much of an attachment to my family. That said, they feel the same way about me¡±. Cleo paused, and began fiddling with the hem of her dress. ¡°Winoa can still go home if she want¡¯s to, she¡¯s the eldest of three, and Rose is an only child. They have homes to go to and I would feel awful if they ignored that but I don¡¯t. I don¡¯t really want to go to the Ignis tower. I... I don¡¯t know what I should do¡±.


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    Laurence looked at her for a while. She had been through a lot. He could tell that. What surprised him was that despite everything she had been through, how she had been treated by her family and her own climb up Babel, she had not lost a certain innocence about her. She had something enchanting to Laurence, and for a moment he understood what Peter was talking about. After a second he lost the train of thought and could not catch it, but the ghost of the idea was still there, like a mental aftertaste. ¡°You could join Spring Street if you like. I¡¯d have to see what you were good at, but you¡¯re a golden child. You¡¯ll easily pass the induction ceremony. Yun, Louisa and I still hold the records for everything, so it might be interesting to see if someone can actually compete¡±.


    Cleo laughed, and the mood around them lightened. ¡°Okay, I think I can get behind that. I don¡¯t really like the idea of killing people. Even the idea of doing that to someone like Peter is slightly... too much for me. I don¡¯t understand how you can do it¡±.


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand why people have such a big problem with it. Did you not hunt during your time coming to this floor?¡±


    ¡°Of course I did. I didn¡¯t like it, but it was a necessity¡±.


    ¡°I don¡¯t like killing either. I don''t feel particularly strongly about it, but sometimes it needs to be done. But my point was that people are just animals that we can understand. If someone needs ending then end them. It¡¯s no different from killing a bear that is trying to harm you, or a few rabbits for food¡±.


    ¡°I don¡¯t get him either, Cleo. His reasoning makes sense, and I think that there are some people who truly do deserve killing, but... I can¡¯t be as flippant about it as Law is. I honestly only think that Yun can,¡± said Jim. The entire time he had been next to Laurence and Cleo talking, he had been absentmindedly throwing a stone into the air and catching it while listening. He caught the stone one final time before looking at the both of them. ¡°I just thought of a new name for our troupe, by the way¡±.


    ¡°What¡¯s a troupe?¡± said Cleo.


    ¡°A troupe, or a cell, is the name of a group of people. Usually a close knit one,¡± Laurence replied. ¡°Go on then, what¡¯s the idea¡±.


    ¡°Well, seeing as we are all Saints, why don¡¯t we spit in the face of the clans and call ourselves the Golden Children?¡±

 Epilogue 1: The Towers of Avalon

    <blockquote><cite>Stormeater Wrote: </cite>Oh boy! This is the first of the three part epilogue of Babel book 1! I hope you enjoy it!</blockquote>


    The sky over Avalon was always overcast. Lightning rippled and struck the bone towers constantly to keep the gi contained. It was not time for the seal on the city¡¯s gi to be released, but Yveth could tell that it would be soon. Her connection to what her father called the towergi was much stronger than anyone before her. It was even stronger than her mother¡¯s, and her mother was the great prophet.


    She stood near the top of one tower, watching the lighting roil across the sky and waiting for her father to finish with whatever military mission he had planned. She knew little about the military, and did not really care. Her life was never pointed in that direction. Her life was to lead the people spiritually.


    A crack of thunder sounded out as her father opened the door to the meeting room. And she smiled. It was always pleasant seeing her father. The smell of blood wafted past her nose and she could not help but notice a bloody stain on the bone floors of the room. She paid no heed. Her father might be in a bad mood but her information was too important.


    ¡°Good evening father,¡± she said, ¡°I see someone angered you¡±.


    ¡°The fool was suggesting that we give up training for the crusade because it had been generations since the last sign appeared¡±. He tossed a bag dripping with blood at Yveth. ¡°That is his heart and several of the more manageable bones. You could create some gi piercings with that if you chose, though the man was old. I assume he thought he would be home free because he was over sixty. The fool¡±.


    ¡°Thank you father¡±. Yveth paused. Biting her lip she looked at the man who had raised her dead in the eyes and then bowed. ¡°Grand Lancelot of the Avaloninan army, I must report this to you so you can strategise correctly. I entered the heretical land as part of a crucible set by the great Prophet herself, and came across something dire. I came across two boys, and I could tell there was something off about them the moment that they showed up, but when they began fighting me, I realised that they were golden children of the Hephaistia clan. They were practitioners of the Book you burned¡±.


    Yveth¡¯s father gritted his jaw as he heard the news. ¡°Are you sure? Are you sure they were not members of the Dominus clan, or something else?¡±


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    ¡°Father, I was there when you set fire to the fields of the Hephaistia homeworld. I was young, but I saw the gi of the golden children there. I heard their cries as they realised there was no hope. I know a child of that doomed book anywhere, and I know that both those boys had the gi of Creation around them¡±.


    The Grand Lancelot looked out at the lightning clouds, watching the white, yellow and purple ripples pass across the sky. After about a minute of thought he looked at his daughter and ushered her to follow him. They walked down the stairs of the tower to the hall that connected the bone towers of Avalon to each other and began pulling on the rope that rung the great bell of the city. With each toll of the bell, people began dropping whatever was in their hands and running towards the centre of the city. The bell only rung for momentous occasions, so whatever this was, it would be the highlight of the year.


    As the crowd filled the hall, the Grand Lancelot stopped ringing the bell and stood in front of the crowd of people that had presented themselves. He looked out and saw a woman push through the crowd. It was his wife, and he could see that she was not happy. It was understandable, the military never usually took steps without contacting the clergy, but today was different.


    He took a deep breath, puffing out his chest and then addressed the crowd. ¡°Citizens of Avalon. You know me. You know I would only call you with the blood bell if it was something of the most dire importance. I am here today to declare a manhunt¡±. A wave of muttering went through the crowd that only increased as the Prophet arrived at the front of the quickly increasing mass of people.


    ¡°Gawayen, what is this all about?¡± The Prophet said. People gasped and stepped back. There was something very wrong with the situation if even the Prophet did not know what was going to happen.


    ¡°I am sorry Prophet Murgaze, but this had to be done immediately. People, there are a couple of heretics that escaped the purge of ten years ago. We must right this wrong, else the path to autonomy will be closed for us forever¡±. He began shouting, ¡°For autonomy! For Avalon! For freedom from the tower!¡±


    ¡°For autonomy! For Avalon! For freedom from the tower!¡±

 Epilogue 2: Going Home

    There was not much for Rose to clear up in the house. It was never really her home, it just held all the memories of her hiding from Peter. It was a grim, dark house that was filled with memories of pain for her and she could not take that anymore. She needed to get out. She needed to return to her clan and to find out what happened to Willis. It had plagued her for months, wondering what had happened to him. She hoped that he had gotten to safety, but she knew Peter. She knew that he would not let Willis survive if he had her scent. He was simply obsessed.


    It was comforting to know that he had been taken to the Mephisto citadel, because he would no doubt be heavily punished for what he had done. The clans did not care much about how their golden children acted, as long as the golden children made the clan look good. They needed to make the clan look magnanimous to the common people, not monstrous, because then and only then could they get the unwavering support that they normally received. The clans were something that normal people aspired to be part of, so incidents like that of Peter would be hushed up and he would be severely punished for far overstepping his bounds.


    It allowed her to relax. There was no need for her to worry about the devourer hunting her anymore, she was free. All she had to do was put all the items from her journey up Babel in her bag, and then she would be free to join her family. She gave one last look around her old home before walking towards the door.


    Lost in thought, she did not notice the skeletal rat in the corner of the room. It stayed just out of sight but followed her every movement. Scuttling behind Rose, the rat clambered up a wall and began following her from the rooftops. Rose could feel that something was following her, but she ignored it. She was so used to it at this point that the paranoia was second nature to her. Peter was back with his family. There was no danger now. She had to believe that the sense of danger was purely a residual feeling from when Peter was chasing her. The alternative was something far too distressing for her.


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    She walked down the main road from Panwood Lane to the highway that lead to the Briar gardens. The gardens were one of the wonders of the tenth floor, but something that Rose had never had a chance to see. Travelling somewhere had felt so dangerous to her that she could only hid in that poky little room for a year before Cleo and Winoa came and freed her. They would never truly know how grateful she actually was for them finding her and freeing her from the hell that had been inflicted on her.


    As she walked down the main road, the sense of danger only seemed to increase. The street began to clear, and she frowned, picking up the pace. She was only a mile from the safety of the Briar home. She could make it in less than a minute if need be.


    The last thing that she needed to do before reaching safety was walk through a series of alleyways and she would be in Briar territory. They were short, but they were what made her feel the most danger. She took a deep breath and just waked into them. She was prepared to run, but held off to prove to herself that she was worrying about nothing.


    As she turned the final corner, she stopped. Standing at the end of the alley was a boy with red hair. He took a step towards her and smiled as she cried out in fear.


    ¡°Hello Rose,¡± Peter said.

 Epilogue 3: The Fallen Morning

    The fourth floor was far more active than it should have been for a dimension that was made to emulate the four elements. It was usually the place that people spent the least time, because normal people could not stay in it for more than about six months before succumbing to the extremes. However today, the field of fire was full of men walking too and fro around the mountainous region near the centre of the landmass.


    Normally people ignored the mountain, but Declan was sure that his dream was bound within the mountain. It had taken him a year, looking all around the mountain itself, but finally he had discovered a crack in the almost perfect illusion. The tiniest chink in what would have otherwise been the perfect armour. He smiled. The thousand years he had been alive would finally be worth something if he could get the Fallen Morning to back the Lupe clan. They would rise to prominence above the other clans, and they would be able to lord themselves over anyone below Babel herself. All it required was to make a pact with two devils.


    Declan knew that his plans would have his father turning in his grave, but he did not care. His father never had his vision. He was happy with the place that their clan held, one of being subservient to the Book clans, simply because bodily transformation was a pipe dream. Declan had moved on. He had become an auxiliary member of a clan, and had climbed the tower after attaining Heaven rank. He had sacrificed his purity for power, and now he would do it again, so that no Lupe was ever looked down on again.


    He smirked as he put his hands through the wall that he had been facing for ten minutes, proving to his brother and to everyone else that had followed him that he was right. He was not insane, and that there was something that would lead them to the answer that they had been looking for all this time in the mountain. He could not be anything but the vanguard of the endeavour, as anything else would be considered weakness in the eyes of his peers, so he pushed through the gateway and flinched as he entered the world beyond.


    What he saw on the other side was unbelievable. It was a paradise in comparison to the field of flames that were behind him. He could not even feel the scalding heat that was everywhere in the field. Instead there was a grassy plateau, a river, a pond and a small wooden house with a man sitting outside, looking as if he had been waiting for Declan. He stood up and meandered over to the Lupe man, and bowed slightly at him.


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    ¡°Good day, I am Luke Jeshua, how can I help you?¡±


    ¡°Sir... My name is Declan Lupe, and I would like to ask you if you know anything about the fallen morning¡±. Declan had to tread carefully. He had no idea if the man he was facing was truly the fallen morning, or perhaps just a person imprisoned in this land to pass on the information about the whereabouts of the fallen morning himself. There was no way for him to know.


    The man, Luke, laughed. ¡°Ah, now that¡¯s a title I have not heard in awhile. Yes, I believe can tell you all about him, but to do so, I need to take a trip, and you¡¯re going to help me. To start with, we need to destroy the barrier that stands around this hellish place¡±.


    Declan looked at Luke in surprise, he had finally found another clue to the whereabouts of the disaster that had plagued the greater clans hundreds of cycles ago. If he could harness its power, then he would without a doubt find a way to oust the other clans and become a power greater than any of them. He immediately turned around and moved to try and work out how the region was separated, the quicker he complied with Luke''s request the quicker he would be able to find his answers.


    Luke hummed as Declan walked off. It was so simple for him to move someone''s mind to do what he wanted. There was no effort in it, especially when they had as weak a mind as the Lupe''s, but he did not dwell on the thought for long. He would have to get his things together before he would be ready to go back to his mother. He was no longer interested in destroying her creation, but instead he wouldsupersedeher. She had left him locked up for thousands of years, and he would make her pay. He looked up at the slowly splintering hemisphere that made up the shield keeping him in and opened his arms wide. The Fallen Morning was back.

 A Closing Word From The Author

    Hey all!


    Thank you for supporting me during my time writing the Golden Children. I reall appreciate all the people reading, critiquing and rating my novel and I would love for all of you who follow me to continue do the same with my second novel, the middle book of Babel - The Path To Ascension, Heaven</a>.


    A little update, I''ve been busy over the last month or so, working and being ill, so it took a while to continue the updates but now I am back, and I am continuing them with a vengeance! At the same time, I am also releasing another seires that I have titled the first story of as "The Pandora Experiment", and will be uploading it on here as soon as I have a decent blurb for it.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Anyway, have a check out of Heaven if you enjoyed Babel and I promise there will be more blood, more madness, and more mystery about the machinations within the tower itself!


    Thank you for your support


    - Seth (StormEater)