The ground began to tremble. At first it was soft, but as the seconds passed, it grew stronger and stronger. Roy glanced around in confusion. “What’s going on?”
Jason’s expression grew solemn. “Watch closely.”
Suddenly, Roy spotted something. His eyes widened in awe as he witnessed the sight before him. Over a thousand ascenders rode on armored warhorses towards the undead army. Hundreds more flew above on gliders. All of the ascenders flying held either a bow, wand, or staff. All of the ascenders shared one thing in common. They had the symbol of a tattered flag on their armor. As the ascender army drew closer to the undead horde, they lit up with light. Spells that buffed stats were cast, defensive skills were activated, and weapons were drawn.
“What’s happening?” Roy exclaimed. When he had entered the undead horde earlier, he saw hundreds of other ascenders composed of small groups. Never before had he seen such a coordinated effort.
Jason narrowed his eyes as he inspected the tattered flag. “That’s the upper-tier guild, Vengeance.”
“Vengeance?” Roy made sure to remember the name.
The ascender army’s momentum picked up as they pushed their warhorses to the limit. In only a matter of seconds both armies would collide. Just as it was about to happen, the ascenders that flew on gliders made their move. A wave of arrows and elemental spells rained down from above, wreaking havoc among the undead army.
Like a knife through butter, the warhorses encountered no resistance as they charged forward. Underneath the ascender army, skeletons fell apart and zombies were crushed. They were an unstoppable force.
Roy couldn’t believe how easy the undead army was falling. His eyes glittered as he muttered. “That’s crazy! How much XP are they getting?”
The amount of damage he, Jason, and Olivia had dealt to the undead horde was nothing compared to Vengeance’s army. They were simply no match. Roy began to imagine himself leading an army of elite ascenders through armies of monsters, all bearing the symbol of his guild.
Jason frowned as he watched Vengeance’s army tear apart the undead. This was the power of a guild. As it stood right now, only a few individuals had the power to match a guild, and that was only middle-tier guilds. No single ascender had the power to face an upper-tier guild or top-tier guild by themselves. Only after several more decades would the gap between the top ascenders and guilds narrow.
That was several decades that Jason couldn’t afford to wait for. He needed to increase his power beyond that of a top-tier guild in less than five years. Maybe that's why he pushed himself so hard. Why he so recklessly charged into the undead army. Monster hordes gave a vast amount of XP, true, but they were incredibly dangerous. Jason berated himself. If he pushed himself so hard that he lost his life, everything was lost. He needed to stay within his limits. For himself, and for humanity.
“Oh, you guys are alive.” Olivia’s voice sounded from behind them.
Roy turned, at first delighted that Olivia was safe and sound, and then furious. “Where did you go?”
Olivia shrugged. “I left when I realized how reckless you two were being.”
Roy stamped his foot. “You just abandoned us without a word. We’re a guild! That isn’t how a family should treat each other.”
Olivia sneered in derision. “Since when did I say I’d sacrifice myself for the guild? Don’t be mistaken. A guild is just a way to increase efficiency. A family? Hah! Ridiculous.”
Roy’s cheeks turned red from anger. Just as he was about to snap back, Jason sent him a message through the communication necklace. “This is my fault, not hers. Besides, you’re being unreasonable. You can’t expect her to think of our guild as a family when she just joined. These things take time. Years, even.”
Roy paused. He cared deeply about Jason’s opinion, so he thought it over. Perhaps he was being unreasonable. Still, whether he was right or wrong, he still looked down on Olivia for abandoning them without a single word. Roy turned away. “Fine.”
Jason glanced back and forth between Roy and Olivia. He shook his head as he sighed inwardly. It seems Roy is taking this guild thing more seriously than I thought. A family, huh?
Olivia turned to Jason. “I don’t know what you were thinking, charging into the horde like that. Do you think you’re invincible?”
Jason smiled bitterly. “I wasn’t thinking straight. I’m better now, though.”
“Hmm.” Olivia mused for a moment. “I’ve been together with you for a little over a week now, yet you haven’t trained me a single time. Are you going to hold up your end of the bargain or not?”
Jason chuckled to himself. She’s still the same as before. Olivia was someone who placed herself before anybody else. To her, a guild was just a way to gain benefits. Her ideology and Roy’s were completely at odds with each other.
Just as he was about to respond, his father’s voice rang in his mind. “Hey. I’m holed up in a cave on the fourth floor. Things, uh, aren’t looking good on my end. I just wanted to say I’m proud of you, Jason. Goodbye.”
Chapter 42
The world faded to black as the message from his father repeated over and over again. Jason staggered backwards, his heart on the verge of exploding. He couldn’t believe it. He didn’t dare to. His worst fears had come to pass; his father would just become another corpse in Brazil’s tower.
“What’s wrong?” Roy stepped forward in concern when he noticed Jason’s face was as white as a sheet of paper.
Only after several moments did Jason recover. He tried sending a message to his father, but there was no response. He clenched his teeth. He’s still alive! Just because he didn’t respond didn’t mean he was dead. It just meant he was busy fighting. How could his father die so soon? Jason had just returned to the past. He could fix everything. Everyone would be happy!
Roy clasped Jason’s shoulder. “Hey, what’s going on? Why won’t you talk?”
Jason’s eyes were red as he struggled to respond. “My father… he needs my help. His life is in danger!”
“Where?” Roy’s eyes narrowed as he gripped his sword, ready for battle.
Jason pulled out a scroll and shook his head. “You can’t come.”
Roy wilted from the denial. “Is it because I’m too weak? You think I’ll hold you back?”
Jason didn’t want to waste any time, but when he saw Roy’s expression, he paused to offer an explanation. “My father is in the military. Are you prepared to kill other humans?”
Roy’s eyes widened in surprise. He didn’t respond. Jason unfurled the scroll, activating it. “I’ll be back.”
With that, Jason disappeared in a flash of light. Roy turned around, only to see Olivia disappear as well. He looked at the ground and muttered. “Killing humans…?”
Roy clenched his hands. He could kill monsters, sure, but humans?
As Roy was left to his thoughts, Jason rushed towards the restaurant he normally ate at, the place he showed Roy. He ordered a few meals, paying extra to make it fast, and stored it in his inventory. Then he made his way to the stables near the entrance of the city. He used Burst consecutively to increase his speed. When he arrived, he bought the fastest horse they sold before making his way to the Rayd kingdom.
A few hours later, Jason jumped off the exhausted horse and entered the capital of the kingdom. He made his way to the portal leading to the previous floor. Just before he was about to enter, he quickly downed one of the meals he’d purchased earlier. His stamina now regenerated two hundred percent faster for four hours, among other buffs.
Jason arrived on the same floor, except that it was in Brazil’s tower. He turned in the direction of the other portal and spared no stamina as he ran as fast as he could. His surroundings were a blur, although he could see a few ascenders fighting here and there. He only had one thought as he ran. Faster! He had to go faster!
Thanks to the buffs provided by the food, Jason arrived on the fourth floor not even twelve hours later. The closer he got to th
e lower floors, the more fighting between ascenders there was. When they saw how fast he ran, they gave up the notion of chasing him.
Jason paused as he took in the sight before him. Thousands of ascenders fought one another to the death. Among the cacophony of shouting and screaming, there was the occasional flash of light, signifying the death of an ascender. The ground was covered in loot. If someone picked up every drop, they would make thousands of gold.
Jason took a deep breath as he imagined his father fighting in this mess. He didn’t give up hope. He had spent a vast sum of money to outfit his father in the best gear, so if anybody could survive this chaos, it was him. He recalled his father’s last message. I’m holed up in a cave. The fourth floor had over a hundred caves lining each side of the ravine, so finding his father would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. Thankfully, his father would most likely be wearing heritage armor. It was dyed black, so it was easily recognizable.
With his mind made up, Jason kicked off the ground and jumped onto a large boulder. The floor was filled with them, allowing Jason to avoid the ascenders below as he made his way through the ravine. His eyes darted left and right, searching. Searching for that black armor.
When Jason landed on the next boulder, he paused in disbelief. There he was. A man wielding a two-handed sword, equipped in large black armor, fighting in front of a cave. Jason’s heart finally relaxed as he let out a smile. He thought it might take forever to find his father, but it looked like luck was on his side.
Jumping madly, Jason made his way over to the cave which overlooked the ravine. When he landed, he called out. “Father!”
His shout didn’t reach his father’s ears. Jason smiled lightly. There was so much screaming and shouting, how could his father hear him? He waited until his father killed the ascender in front of him before running over. He tapped his father’s shoulder. “Dad, thank god you’re all right.”
His father turned, startled.
“Dad?” Jason’s smile faltered as he glanced into the eyes of a stranger. A middle-aged Chinese man.
“Poor kid, you must have gone crazy. I’ll put you out of your misery.” The Chinese man raised his two-handed sword high overhead.
Jason ignored the sword threatening to chop his head off. Instead, he glanced at the man’s fingers. There, ten rings glittered brightly. One was a high-quality inventory ring, while the others were unmistakably the rings he’d purchased for his father not long ago. Everything suddenly snapped into place. His father was dead. Jason had arrived too late. The man before him had killed his father and looted his gear. Who wouldn’t? It was heritage armor after all. As Jason realized this, he closed his eyes as tears fell down his cheek.
There was a clang as the greatsword bounced off Jason’s neck. A thin red line was left behind, nothing more. Jason’s defense was too great. It was already a miracle that the Chinese man could wound him.
“Huh?” The Chinese man staggered backwards from the recoil. He was no foot soldier, was actually a high-ranking soldier with incredible talent. He immediately knew that Jason was a higher level than him, much higher. “Why is someone like you on the lower floors? Shouldn’t you be fighting up top?”
The Chinese man called for backup as he stepped backward, eyeing Jason warily. In a matter of seconds, Jason was surrounded on all sides. The Chinese man shouted. “Careful! He’s around level thirty, maybe forty!”
As the soldiers inched closer to Jason, his eyes suddenly snapped open. Strangely, a grey mist covered his eyes. Jason clenched his hands as he faced the sky, letting out a hoarse scream filled with anguish and rage. In response, a grey energy exploded out from Jason’s body, enveloping every ascender within thirty feet.
The light dimmed from the soldier’s eyes as they collapsed to the ground and dispersed into light. Only the man in heritage armor was left, and yet even he fell to one knee. His body was covered in sweat as he gasped for breath. “What was that? Magic?”
Jason slowly lowered his head and glanced around in confusion. When he released his emotions, he felt the battle energy inside of him leave his body. At the same time, he felt incredibly weak. Only when he read the notifications in front of him did he realize what had happened.
Your Battle Energy is reacting to your will. Due to your actions, you are activating a skill that you have yet to unlock.
Warning!
You are forcibly activating a skill without having the required Battle Physique purity.
Due to a lack of Battle Energy, another source of energy must be consumed. 15 levels have been taken to cast the skill.
You have unlocked the Willpower stat.
You have unlocked the Killing Intent skill.
Killing Intent
Unleash Battle Energy to target souls in your surroundings, suppressing or outright destroying them. Damage is based on your Willpower stat. Battle Energy consumed is based on how many targets you choose to attack.
A pleasant surprise. The cost of unlocking the skill dropped him to level 23, but killing all of the ascenders in his surroundings gave him a hefty sum of XP. Each ascender was worth more than an elite monster. He ended up at level 28.
His battle energy was nearly depleted after a single use of the skill, so it couldn’t be used consecutively. Having a soul-based skill this early was something that would normally leave Jason pleased. Right now, when he looked down at his father’s killer, he just couldn’t find himself in the mood to celebrate.
The Chinese man fought against the piercing pain in his mind as he struggled to his feet. The man before him was too strong. He knew he would die here. Even so, he was curious. He glanced up at Jason. “Would you mind telling me the name of the skill you used?”
Jason ignored the question. There was still a bubbling rage that devoured his thoughts. It told him one thing.
Kill. Kill. Kill!
Jason clasped the man’s neck. He wanted to slowly squeeze the life from him. Grey energy rose from Jason’s hand and wrapped around the man’s neck, as if responding to his will. A moment later, the black heritage armor dropped to the ground with a thud, followed by the jewelry.
Jason glanced down in shock. In that last moment, the grey energy had cut through the man’s throat like butter. Jason thought that battle energy was only a resource used to activate skills, but it looked like it could be manipulated by a strong will.
A nearby Chinese ascender noticed Jason and charged over with a fierce battle cry. Jason raised his hand and pointed. He channeled his rage and grief through his finger. Battle energy shot out like a bullet. Shaped by Jason’s will, it formed into a sword and sliced straight through the man’s neck, decapitating him.
A demonic grin spread across Jason’s face. He pointed at another ascender, not caring if they were American or Chinese. After a moment, he frowned in displeasure. It looked like freely manipulating battle energy like that came at a high cost. He didn’t have any battle energy left.
Shrugging, he knelt down. For a brief second, sadness flashed him, but he forced it down and put on his father’s heritage armor and jewelry. His stats skyrocketed, more so than ever before.
Still burning with rage and anger, he turned towards the center of battle and strode forward. Today he would bathe in blood. He didn’t give a damn about anything else.
Chapter 43
A familiar figure appeared like a ghost in front of Jason, blocking his path. Jason slid to a halt. “Why are you here?”
Olivia folded her arms over her chest and shrugged. “I was planning on helping if you needed it.”
Olivia had followed after Jason the entire time, but he hadn’t noticed. He was too focused on his father.
Jason’s voice was hoarse as he replied, “Too late for that.”
Olivia didn’t reply. For a moment, both sides stared at each other as the battle waged on around them.
Jason’s patience was running thin. “Move out of the way.”
Olivia narrowed her eyes. “What do you plan
on doing? Venting your grief on these people?”
“So what?” Jason stepped forward. “What does that have to do with you?”
A flash of sorrow passed through Olivia’s eyes as she replied. “Should you choose to go down this path, you’ll regret it.”
“So what?” Jason took another step forward. He didn’t give a damn about the consequences.
Olivia raised her daggers in front of her as she lowered her posture. “Every time you kill, it must be justified. What is your justification?”
Jason faltered as a flicker of hesitation passed through his mind. What was his justification if he killed these soldiers? Venting? Was that enough? The moment of clarity passed as grief once again overcame him. He growled. “Move out of the way.”
Towers of Heaven Page 23