Return of the Tower Conqueror

  Core of Desolation

Cain and others followed Taima into his workshop; hanging on the walls were all ilk of weapons, ranging from ordinary daggers to triple-bladed swords akin to tridents, in addition to shields, trinkets, and even full-body-armors. The boy quickly went in the back and began tossing out weapons, shields, and ordinary-seeming objects like globes.

However, everyone quickly felt it -- the sheer quantity and quality of Mana contained within each of those. Cain quickly realized that each and every one of those items was the pinnacle of the pre-Awakening craft -- and could even be called quasi-Awakened.

Like drawn, everyone began reaching out -- Kramer to a shortsword, Jamal to a red-woven broadsword, Sigmund to a iron-clad greatsword, Senna to a bladed halo, Daniel to a ghastly brand of fire, Emma toward a spiked shield of silver, and Cain toward a gray-infused, transparent globe. Picking them up, it immediately felt as though the items infused with them by their own volition, like they were the missing part of the whole.

Cain stared at the globe as it danced between his fingers, going from pebble-sized to head-sized within a breath. It was like a planet and his fingers were the star that it orbited. The gray mist within it would clear up ever so often, revealing a dusty world of nothingness within.

"... you really went all out, Taima," Cain mumbled in genuine shock. "You soul-infused them."

"No, no, just yours," the boy quickly corrected him, prancing forward and remaining at a ready next to Cain. "It takes waaaaaay too much energy, and, well, no offense to your friends, Master, but only you are worth that much energy and time."

"Taima."

"Yes, Master?"

"Whatever-do-you-mean?"

"..."

"... you... you told me to be myself."

"And that's great," Cain said, putting his arm on Taima's shoulder and clamping tightly, causing the boy to wince in slight pain. "But not at the expense of the limited dignity I have left."

"Are you... against two men?" Taima asked.

"No, I'm against men and children," Cain added. "And, more specifically, you even jokingly implying anything."

"M-Master, it's... it's starting to hurt..."

"Go make us a dinner..."

"Yes..."

"Maybe you're too hard on him?" Emma asked after the boy left the room, prompting Cain to look at her angrily.

"Are you all fucking blind?!! Can't you even see what kinda creepy shit I'm doing to keep that boy around?!!"

"W-what are you talking about?" everyone jumped back, startled at Cain's sudden outburst.

"What uncle Cain is implying," Lek said after a short moment of silence. "Is that brother Taima is remarkably perverse and that he's behaving that way because he enjoys when uncle Cain scolds him."

"..."

"..."

"..."

"Let's... let's just check out the items, khm," Kramer said.

"Yup, yup," Jamal nodded. "Ain't nothin' else to do."

"Items, items, items..."

"... IT'S EVEN WORSE THIS WAY!!"

Everyone turned their backs toward him, though their jumping shoulders told the whole tale; sighing, Cain chose to ignore them and focused on the orb, expectant of its stats. Taking a deep breath, he inspected it.

//Core of Desolation(Heroic) Weapon

Requirements: Conqueror Cain

Soul: Missive of Dissolution

Type: Archaic Globe

Suffused Core--Sanctified

Energy Type: Molecular--Reconfigured

+100% to Intelligence

-60% to Vitality

+80% to Wisdom

-50% to Stamina

Temporary Access to Element 'Ruin--Desolation', tiered 'B+'

Regenerate 15% of missing Mana every half a second when in combat; in return, passive Health Regeneration is set to 0, and all healing received is lowered by 80%. This passive can be turned off. Requires 24h to be turned on again.

[Storming] -- the Core accumulates anti-energy, up to twice the quantity of your Mana. For each 1000 energy, rend one square meter around you Null.

[Soothsayer] -- activate a predictive module; in resonance with your Talent, Perception, you can estimate up to 6000 simulations within 0.8 seconds fault-line. Requires 150 Mana per 1 simulation.

[Inferna] -- all fire-suffused Skills cause the Core to explode with violent energy, firing off a cone of Inferna that deals 1200% of your Intelligence as damage to those afire.

[Quanta Finis] -- reconfigure the Energy from Molecular to '???'; enables dimensional tearing, causing each Skill that costs at least 3000 Mana to strike through 5 extra planes.

[Singularity] -- core deconstructs and condenses, careening a singularity; for 2 minutes, gain access to infinite Mana of 'Higher Property', become wrapped in deflective energy that cannot be destroyed unless you are hit by a direct strike that deals at minimum 600,000 damage, and remove all casting requirements from your Skills. Upon the duration's end, the Core falls aslumber for 8 months. Each 100,000 Mana infused into it speeds up the process by 1 day.

[Herald of Eclipse] -- Skills cost 10% less Mana to cast if fighting someone within 5 Levels of you, 15% against someone within 10 levels of you, 25% against someone 45 Levels and below of you, and 50% against someone a whole Tier above you.

[Void Eater] -- each Skill that transfers you through Space leaves behind a tunnel for 8 hours; you can travel back and forth through it at no cost, but so can others. Each consecutive time you use the tunnel to travel, you gain 'Voided' debuff, decreasing your max health by 3% for 25 seconds and preventing all healing to you for 10 seconds.

[Avatar of Desolation] -- upon receiving a fatal strike, the Core ignites, suffusing environmental Mana into you and charging your Aspects. Turn into an Avatar of Desolation for 3 minutes thereafter, increasing the potency of your 'Desolation--Ruin' element to (Demigod), but removing access to all other Elements. As the Avatar, you become immune to ALL forms of Damage except direct Chaos and Stardust-suffused Creation. After 3 minutes, the form ends and you are left with 1% of your max Health. This can occur only once a Cycle.

Cain blankly stared at the weapon's information for good few minutes after he'd read through it all; there was something innately insane about it and beyond difficult to process, just like the first time he'd seen magic done in front of his eyes. It wasn't something one can adjust to immediately, and, in some ways, this was even crazier than magic.

Despite the fact that Cain had both seen and possessed items that were, objectively, better than the globe, both in their base stats as well as the active and passive components... there was something about this Weapon that remained woefully unique -- the way it was worded, the way its increments worked, and the way... none of it made any sense. It was almost as though it pretended to be a merger of science and magic, of reality and fiction, of two diametrically opposed ideas antithetical to one another.

He picked the globe up and held it between his fingers, launching it up above his palm and letting it levitate. Even the initial classification of the item was beyond complex -- something that he'd never seen before. He had no clue what 'Suffused Core' meant or even what the 'Type of Energy' was. In many ways, he had no idea what the item itself represented.

If Cain had shared anything of Earth with Taima, he might have suspected the boy was just screwing with him -- but he hadn't. This wasn't the workings of the boy, Cain knew; at least not in the abstracts. He was the hand that molded the energy, yes, but not the one that initiated it, not the one that coalesced the descriptions. That was the 'system', the 'god', the 'matrix' -- the innumerable names the guiding hand of the Tower was called throughout Cain's life.

Cain sat down abruptly, feeling shaken; something was different. There was nothing like this weapon before, he knew. No, there likely was, he'd forgotten he was just a stain, a footnote in the whole story. Who knew what transpired at the very top? Perhaps people stop climbing the Tower for a very good reason. Perhaps it wasn't that the superstars got lazy and decided to cash-in on the fame... but something much stranger than fiction.

"What's wrong?" Emma's candid voice pulled him back to reality, her worried face plastered almost against his, her sky-blue eyes staring alarmed at his.

"N-nothing," he replied quickly. "Just, uh, just shocked at Taima's talent."

"Shit, I'll say," Emma added. "This shield... is fuckin' nuts. Honestly, all that mess we went through to get him... feels kinda worth it now."

"Even--" Cain wanted to say 'even me being crippled for three months', but stopped himself due to the implications.

"You've been dancing around us like we're feathers," Emma said with a faint chuckle. "Well, dance might be pushing it a bit. You always had two left feet."

"And lived to tell the tale; I'm just surprised I haven't been featured in any scientific journals. Or, you know, circus show."

"Ah, I'm sure they just took pity on you. Anyway, check out this shield! It's exactly like my last one, where it moves on its own, just a good, heavenly chunk better! Shit, we need to officially adopt that boy and seal him into our family before the world figures out just how broken he is. He's like a P2W pet or some shit. Check it out, check it out..." Emma's excitement slowly washed away Cain's anxiety; even if he was right, if there was a reason why the world stopped trying to climb the floors, if it was that visceral... he'll undoubtedly discover it one day, too, and back down. For now, at least, they were safe... and that's all that mattered.

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