The Tower's Price: A LitRPG Adventure (Tower of Power Book 5)

by Ivan Kal

  He could feel his ability slipping, but he didn’t know what he could do. There was nothing that he could do. Time would start again, and he couldn’t react fast enough.

  Events accelerated, and Morgan’s eyes burned from the heat. He raised his wing and triggered his form again to heal, spending the last mass he had available in his bracelet. He didn’t have enough mass to create energy for his body to feed on, so he started feeling the drain on his core. He opened his eyes, and expected to see Ves dead.

  Instead, he saw an impossibility.

  Voralla and Rainor Ohm were standing in front of Ves, a couple of meters ahead, and they were holding the beam away. The stone beneath their feet melted, the power of the beam spreading to the side, and Morgan beat his wings to get out of the way of the heat. He landed next to Ves and pulled her in an embrace, intending to fly away with her. He tried, but his wings were unresponsive and he realized just how low on energy his core was, and his body didn’t have any energy to spare to use powerful moves. He tried to think of a way to cannibalize his own muscles for energy, but he didn’t have the time.

  The beam intensified, and Voralla and Rainor shuddered. Voralla held her hands forward, sending pure energy at it to halt it. Rainor held his sword in both hands and a constant kinetic force was pushing forward. Morgan saw his hands melting into his sword, saw the weapon softening as their clothes caught fire, and Morgan knew that they wouldn’t survive.

  “No!” Ves screamed as the red fire intensified. Her parents melted before her eyes and Morgan knew that they were next.

  He covered the two of them with his wings, so that they couldn’t see, and waited for the end.

  The heat increased, and he felt it even through his wings—but then, to his surprise, it didn’t get worse. Morgan stood up, and saw.

  Vall was standing in front of them, his armor melting and his real hand charring, his prosthetic melting as he held the beam off. Morgan’s eyes widened as he saw Vall taking the red fire into his own body, saw it burning from the inside.

  Vall turned his head, looking at them both. “Go!” he roared, and Morgan picked up Ves as she protested. His body felt sluggish, but he ran. The fire in front of Vall twisted, arcs of it escaping behind him, hitting the ground, while Morgan struggled to evade. He saw one hit the rest of the ground group, Ragnor Raam raising his swords to block and get sent flying back into Borodar and Hexna as more flashes of arcing fire battered at the rest. Clara raised a domed shield, and Sumion helped with his wall barriers.

  Behind, Vall grew in size, his class used to be the Everburning Juggernaut, but just before their fight he reached level 60 and evolved into the Burning Avatar. He absorbed the deadly fire energy out of the beam, even though it hurt him, even though it was powerful enough to burn even him with all of his fire resistances.

  He grew into a monster made out of fire: an avatar of fire.

  The beam ceased, and Morgan stopped as he reached the rest of the raid group. He turned and watched. The avatar of blood was looking away as Ta’elara threw lightning and blades of wind toward it, and it did not see Vall. His form was that of a human, with long curving horns, all made out of red fire, he moved, getting closer to the avatar of blood, while Ta’elara kept it busy.

  Morgan collapsed on to the ground and focused on using his Body Manipulation. He switched to his Main Form, using the extra mass of his Combat Form to create energy supplies for his lesser form. The draw on his core stopped, and his energy started regenerating, but he was spent and he knew it.

  Everyone around him watched, Vall approaching Ta’elara and the enemy. Morgan saw that all of them were injured, that all of them were exhausted. Vall extended a hand and a guandao made out of fire formed out of his body. He dashed forward and stabbed the avatar of blood in its back. The massive lizard-like creature made out of red blood opened its maw soundlessly and then turned, smashing a fist into Vall, staggering him and ripping the weapon out of its body.

  Ta’elara took advantage and a barrage of fire bolts flew down, hitting the enemy in the back. Morgan could see the spots that were hit, the wound that Vall had made, were all dried up, cracked. It was working. The avatar of blood snapped its hand in Ta’elara’s direction and a wave of force smashed into her from above, sending her into the ground, cracking the ground around her. Morgan saw her try to move, to get up, but she fell back down, exhausted.

  He looked around, trying to see if anyone else had any strength left. But everyone seemed drained; some were drinking health potions, but that wouldn’t restore their energy.

  Vall recovered, and the avatar of fire moved and pounced on the avatar of blood. He stabbed his guandao in its stomach again and grabbed hold of its shoulder with his other hand. And then the red fire intensified. Vall hugged the monster made of blood and burned. Morgan had to look away the fire was so intense, just as it had been when it was just a beam. Everything turned red, and a wave of heat hit them all. Morgan grimaced, and he heard the others groaning in pain.

  And then it was gone. The monster of blood was cooked, half of its blood evaporated, dried, and cracked. The diminished avatar of fire stepped back, and the avatar of blood cracked and fell to the ground before turning into dust.

  Morgan heard someone cheer, and he joined in. Ves looked up at the avatar of fire as its flames dimmed and it shrunk. Then there was only Vall there, his armor melted off his body, his naked skin charred and black in most places. He turned around, looking at his twin sister and smiled as his body steamed. Ves took a step forward, a smile on her face in response, and then Vallsorim’s flesh cracked and slowly his body turned to dust blowing on the wind. A moment later, the dust turned to blue particles that scattered over the platform.

  Morgan felt Ves drop to her knees and heard her wail, but his heart was frozen in pain. His friend had died—another price paid for the Tower. He closed his eyes, trying to come up with some words for Ves, who had lost not only her twin but the parents she had barely had the chance to reunite with.

  And then everything shook. Morgan was thrown off his feet and landed on the floor, like everyone else around him. He looked up and saw two figures standing in two craters in front of them. There was the Tower Master, six massive blades attached to tendrils of shadow growing out of his back and a spear made out of some kind dark black and dark blue crystal. The Tower Master’s body filled with wounds and dried blood marring his face. Across from him stood another being, dressed in what looked like high-tech battle armor that had been peeled off in places. The helmet was gone and revealed a white-furred head resembling that of a lizard like the Rzan. He had an arched back, and on it Morgan saw a gash that ripped into the armor and the flesh beneath across one shoulder, but on the other side he something that looked like a small cannon. He had holes in his stomach and one of his legs was bleeding profusely.

  He must be the Herald that the Tower Master warned us about. They glared at each other, and then in an instant the Herald turned and launched himself in Morgan’s direction, the cannon on his shoulder glowing with bright white light. Morgan’s eyes widened, and the Tower Master moved after the Herald. He fell into his own shadow and appeared behind the Herald, his spear raised high and his swords stabbing forward. The Herald lurched mid-step, turned around, and fired his cannon point blank into the Tower Master, sending him flying back.

  Morgan changed his arm to a sword, and the others readied their weapons as well as the Herald turned back toward them and flashed across the distance to stand in front of Morgan and the rest. Morgan tried to move, but he was frozen—something was holding him and everyone else in place.

  “If I cannot find the Cursed Beast, I will at least know what this place truly is, and what the adversary plots!”

  And then a force smashed into his mind.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  The attack came swiftly, and with enough power to nearly make Morgan’s mind buckle. He had felt such an attack before, however, had had a powerful being inside of his mind. The Herald was
far more powerful than the Weaver on the first floor had been, but his power was nothing compared to Moirai. It didn’t matter in the end, however, because while he might not be as powerful as the enigmatic being that had once helped him, he was far more powerful than Morgan. Morgan felt his Mind Fortress skill attempting to fight the intrusion, and he tried to copy what he felt Moirai do the last time, but he couldn’t. He felt his body go weak, and he saw out of the corner of his eyes everyone else fall to their knees. Morgan managed to stand, but his body was locked up.

  “You fight me, but you are nothing! I will know all, everything that all of you know,” a voice thundered in his head. “Why are you here, spirit artists?”

  And then the Herald reached into his mind and started looking through his memories.

  “You…you are not hers? You…you are a copy, an attempt at recreating her work? Ah, I understand now… Wait—” Morgan felt the Herald focus on him, and realized that he had been reading the minds of everyone at the same time. But now, his full power pushed at Morgan.

  “You are the adversary’s offspring?” Laughter filled Morgan’s mind. “The fates smile at me after all! To have you before me… You will be the spear that shatters our enemy. I will show you the truth of my master. You will know and believe, and you will help us defeat the adversary. What a grand thing fate has granted me, to strike a blow against him with his own legacy.”

  And then the force on his mind abated, and Morgan tried to push the invader out. Only laughter answered his attempts, but something else reached into him, deep through him, and touched his soul. Morgan felt his entire being scream as he felt something trying to find purchase, to get in. He was in agony, the worst pain that he had ever felt.

  “Let Chaos in, child, and the pain will stop. You will thank me after, when you know the truth.”

  Morgan tried to fight it, but it was too much, too strong. He saw a glimpse of something vast and terrible, a force beyond anything else, something that he had no hope of ever comprehending. Beyond even what his father had shown him, beyond Moirai and the Guiding Force—and it wanted him, it wanted his soul and all other souls.

  Morgan understood that this thing was his father’s enemy. This terrible thing was why he needed the World and the ascended. He needed them to fight this. But Morgan didn’t understand how a simple ascended could stand against such a force. His body started to feel like it was being burned apart, as heat radiated out of six points in his body.

  Morgan tried so hard to resist. For the first time, he understood that he had a purpose in life, greater than anything he had ever known. Like every other ascended, they were all here because his father needed something from them. He needed them to be a weapon against the force now trying to claim his soul. And seeing it firsthand, feeling it and its chaotic essence, he knew that any price was worth paying in order to stop it.

  Morgan was the son of one being fighting this enemy, but he wasn’t special. He was like every other ascended in this World: a person filled with the potential to become something more, someone who could fight back. And he didn’t want to fail—in part because he didn’t want to disappoint his father, yes, but more importantly because he didn’t want to see more of his friends and family die. He wasn’t like his father, willing to sacrifice countless for his goal. Morgan understood him, but he wanted different things. He would not sacrifice others for his own gain.

  And he was never going to surrender his soul. The Herald would have to burn it out of him before he bowed, no matter the pain. The six points from which the heat spread through his body burned hotter, and Morgan hardened his will.

  He would not bow.

  And then, he felt something pulling over his heart, something stretching and touching his soul. And then something clicked into place. As if floodgates were opened, the fire spilled into his body. For a moment, he feared that he had lost, that the Herald had won the fight for his soul, but then the fire felt as if it was cleansing him, healing him, filling him with power.

  His core filled with this new energy—not fully, but he had energy.

  His eyes focused and he saw the Herald standing in front of him and then he recoiled back, and Morgan felt the power invading his mind slip out. In an instant, his HUD flashed and then words appeared at the top of his sight.

  Mind Space active—56 seconds relative time remaining

  Morgan blinked. That never happened before. Then a voice spoke inside his head.

  “Morgan! We don’t have the time. You need to do what I show you.”

  “Sabila?” Morgan thought.

  “Yes, you need to act immediately. The Herald was pushed out of your mind and soul, but he can still crush you in an instant.”

  Something flashed in his sight, more words that changed quickly.

  Ability recalibration Phased Gravitic Stomp started…

  Ability recalibration complete…

  Phased Gravitic Stomp changed to Gravity Shift.

  New ability available.

  “Point your hand at the Herald and use your ability!”

  The seconds at the top ticked down, hitting 30. “Wait, what happened? How are you talking to me?”

  “You achieved the seventh step of the Path. Your soul, spirit, and body are forged together, and I am now a full part of you with all of my databases unlocked. I will tell you more, but we do not have the time now.”

  The timer hit 5 seconds, and Morgan readied himself. The words flashed as it hit 0, and time speed up.

  The Herald’s eyes widened, the shifting pools of darkness intensifying, and then he snarled. Morgan raised his hand and grasped for the ability trigger in his mind. It came to him easily, and a moment later energy flew out of his core. This time he saw how it split, how his ability pulled the Metal alignment energy out of his core, how it moved it through his body in a pattern that then exploded out of his hand.

  The Herald took a step forward and Morgan’s ability triggered. The Herald was blown back, or rather fell back. Morgan felt how his ability changed the direction of gravity for just a moment even as it increased its intensity. It was the same ability that he used before, only instead of pushing everything around him down, he now did it in front of his arm.

  The intensity of the ability and energy drain left him spent, all of the new energy filling his core gone.

  The Herald spun midair, his turret focusing on Morgan as he still flew back. And then something flashed above him, and six swords, each the width of Morgan’s torso, smashed into the Herald, impaling him before stabbing him into the ground. The Tower Master landed and then his swords moved, picking up the impaled Herald that was glowing with red energy and throwing him aside. The six blades spread around the Tower Master, pointed at the Herald rolling on the ground. They flashed with dark energy, and then six beams of the purest black shot out of the sword tips. The beams hit the Herald and engulfed him whole, boring holes in the ground and shaking the air itself, almost twisting it.

  The beams cut off, and Morgan saw the Herald on the floor, his body smoking, the armor twisted and melted with the flesh. There was no movement. The Tower Master fell to his knees and the six blades disappeared inside his back. Morgan looked around, seeing his friends on the ground, groaning. Morgan took a deep breath.

  They’d won.

  INTERLUDE VI

  Antaris Truthspeaker felt Kai Zhao Vin’s attack burning his vessel, destroying the connection between him and the body. He had failed, and he was going to die. He didn’t have sufficient power to call to Chaos, or to send a message through the tether connecting him to the universe beyond. He felt his grand spell crumble, and the world they were on reconnect with reality around it.

  There was no surviving now. He was on the ground, his body a wreck, but his soul was still holding on—a wretched and twisted thing, but still his, and still touched by Chaos. He saw the soul of the adversary’s progeny, beyond even his reach now. But there were others around, him, all weakened bodies and souls, exhausted.

  K
ai Zhao Vin flashed next to him, his spear forming in his hand. But Antaris refused to die, refused to fail his master and the trust that had been given him. HE WOULD NOT FAIL AGAIN.

  Antaris cut a part of his soul away, the healthy part that still remained, and threw this small piece of his soul out of the dying body and over the distance into a weakened body nearby. Everyone was exhausted and so no one noticed, if anyone even had the sight.

  As the spear hit his former body and destroyed the connection between body, spirit, and the twisted remains of his soul, the small piece of him settled into another soul. Too weak to do anything at the moment, Antaris resigned himself to patience.

  Perhaps he could still salvage his mission and strike a blow against the adversary.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Morgan sat next to Ves as she cried.

  He didn’t know what to say, but he could at least be there for her. Even as he tried to put on a brave face, however, he felt tears roll down his cheek, too. The others sat on the ground around them, exhausted from the fight, and happy to be alive, knowing that they had lost more of their people—Vall, Evermou, Voralla and Rainor Ohm. But in the end, they had won.

  The Tower Master Kai Zhao Vin stood a bit away, looking down on his wrist hologram.

  Morgan saw Ta’elara sitting next to Lucius. Both of them had been battered incredibly, and even with healing potions they looked miserable. No one was talking, and they took the time to rest in silence. They were still in the massive pyramid, on the platform, but they were safe, at least. There were no new monsters coming, and Morgan doubted that there would be any attacks, not with the Tower Master here.