Return of the Tower Conqueror

  The Heaven (III)

Cain was finally awoken from his stupor by a gentle nudge, prompting him to glance at Ethan who nodded forward. There, five figures stood about menacingly, their weapons drawn, claws sharpened and pointing at the two of them. None of the five wore masks-- in fact, they even parted the strands of hair as though to frame their faces even better.

"Who are they?" Cain quizzed.

"I only know of that dude," Ethan pointed at the man standing at the center. "His name is Larry or something. He's a fairly famous Paladin, mostly because his defenses are apparently so strong no one person can break them."

"My name is Lazarus!" the man corrected with a growl.

"Pfft..."

"What's funny?" he asked Cain who stiffened his lips.

"Nothin', nothin'," Cain shook his head. "Anyway, what do you guys want? If it's money, I'm afraid I'm dead broke! You see, a few weeks ago, I bought my first Powerpuff Girls figurine... and then... and then I went on an unhealthy binge. I literally have a massive warehouse the size of Walmart stacked to the roof with the tens of thousands of figurines. My wife is threatening to leave me if I don't burn them all but I already told that bitch that she be wildin' if she thinks I'll abandon my one, true love!"

"..." following a momentary, confused silence, Cain took the opportunity to swiftly subdue the five people and seal their Mana usage. Though he wasn't afraid of fighting, especially on the 9th Floor, countless items have been found ever since he last ventured into the Tower. And many of the Item Effects could pose a massive headache, so he wanted to avoid it.

"E-eh?!" by the time the five realized what had happened, they sat down in shock, infernal chains tightly wrapped around them, binding their arms to their backs.

Ethan stared wide-eyed at the figure in front of him; this time around, he got a clearer look at what had happened, especially since he was expecting it. That level of Mana manipulation... he had never seen an Elementalist do it. Not even the Awakened ones. He even saw Dragoon fight, considered among the world's top five Elementalist, and the skills weren't even within the same scope of reality.

Not only was casting of the skill done instantly, which was unheard of, not a single bout of Mana seeped out, yet another unprecedented feat. Ethan's entire worldview all but collapsed in the rain of shards. None of what he had just witnessed made any sense, and even if someone begged him to explain... he'd be unable to.

"How long have you guys been in here?" the man crouched down in front of Lazarus and quizzed. The latter had a pensive look on his face, his eyes drowned in the look of unwillingness and shock. "Aii, don't look at me like that... I'm not gonna hurt you, I promise. I just wanna ask a few questions."

"I ain't tellin' you nothin'."

"... why do I suddenly seem like a gangster?" the man stood up and sighed. "Ah, whatever. What should we do with 'em?" Ethan finally got pulled out of his stupor, glancing between the tied-up five and the man.

"Uh... tie them over the ledge?"

"Eh, I don't wanna walk all the way there," the man shrugged. "Let's just leave them here. The chains will expire in a few hours. If they're alive by then, it will be their luck."

"That's... very... whatever."

"Let's go explore."

"... what's your name?" Ethan asked suddenly as the two left the five confused and seated, moving deeper into the silver-hung citadel.

"Cain," the man replied, suddenly taking out a beer can from his inventory, offering one to Ethan who declined. "I've been out of the game for a while."

"How long is that 'awhile'?" Ethan asked, a certain figure emerging in his mind.

Though most of the world has forgotten, there were still quite a few that remembered and even often talked about the brief stint of the world's enigma in the very early days of the Towers-- a single man that put so much pressure on the entire world that he deterred wars and invasions all by himself. He only ever made a few public appearances that could be linked to him, but, in the eyes of the many, he's left as large of a mark as the long-standing Conquerors over the years.

Even today, actually, there wasn't an Elementalist capable of creating as large of a fireball as he made so early on. While there certainly were those who could create a more destructive one by the virtue of Mana manipulation, the size was entirely linked to the raw output-- meaning that whoever that man was had more Mana nearly seven years ago than even the strongest Elementalists have today.

However, that reality was changing, especially with how inflated the stats have become. Ethan even suspected that there were quite a few Elementalists who have broached that line but just chose to stay hidden. Nonetheless, it only took six years for that to happen. If Cain, the man in front of him, truly was that enigmatic figure, then it wouldn't be as shocking to see him do all the things he does.

"Some time," Cain smirked at him and replied enigmatically. "Anyway, what's your Awakened Class?"

"Shadowmancer," Ethan replied.

"Oh? That's fairly high quality," Cain said. "Still a tier lower than one guy I know."

"Who is it?" Ethan asked, frowning. Though he wouldn't be so bold as to exclaim he was the best Assassin in the world, especially because he only began his climb a year ago, he was confident in being at least within the top tier.

"If you stick with me, you can meet him," Cain said. "A funny guy. When I met him, he was all 'nothing matters, life is pointless, fuck 'em all'. And now, sheesh, he's all lovin' of the livin'. Look at that," he suddenly came to a halt, prompting Ethan to do the same and look to where he was pointing. There, an arched entrance to a flat and wide platform extruded from the citadel. A dozen or so carved, runic characters curved along the arch, shimmering in faint scarlet.

"Mana there... seems strange..." Ethan mumbled, frowning.

"Oh? You can feel it?" Cain exclaimed, glancing at him. "You're more sensitive than I thought. It's a distortive formation."

"H-huh?"

"The way Mana is drawn distorts reality," Cain elaborated. "If you walked through the arched doors or whatever, you wouldn't land onto just an empty platform. It would likely be something else entirely. That's why the Mana seems strange; it works counter-intuitively to its natural state to create the chaotic sequence that distorts the reality. I know that sounds ominous, but it's actually completely harmless."

"Wow..." Ethan exclaimed softly, sucking in a cold breath. He believed he understood far more about Mana than most others due to his natural trait of 'Mana Sensitivity' that he acquired immediately upon Classification, but he realized that there were always those above him. "Can we do something like that?"

"Huh? On this scale? Pfft, yea, right," Cain chortled for a moment. "Do you know the sheer quantity of Mana required? Even for a simple Mind-related illusion, we are literally talking about tens of thousands of Mana as cost, and we're talking about a skill with like 80% chance of failure. This here... is impossible to replicate. I imagine, even decades into the future, we won't even come close. We can do it on a small scale, though," he added, suddenly extending his arm forward as a surge of Mana erupted on top of his palm. There, Ethan saw a tiny sparks of fire emerge, surrounding an even smaller pole made entirely out of Mana.

"Look into it using your Mana," dazed, Ethan did as he was told and used Mana to look into the phenomenon. On the other end, he actually saw a rain of fire surrounding a single Tower piercing the sky, as though it was a completely different world. In fact, it seemed so real that he grew terrified, pulling out of it and gasping for breath.

"What the hell?!"

"Relax, relax, it's just an illusion," Cain chuckled. "As you see, the principles behind Mana manipulation aren't anything beyond our understanding. It's kinda like space travel, in a sense. Even twenty-thirty years ago, if we only had an inexhaustible source of energy, we could have heralded the space age despite the lack of technology. This is similar."

"It... felt so real," Ethan mumbled, doused in cold sweat.

"Well, yeah. You, like a prime moron, went in with literally no defenses put up. It's like walking into a radioactive chamber and banking on the faith of atoms to avoid you. It just ain't gonna happen chief."

"... your metaphors are weird, dude."

"You're weird. Anyway, let's move on."

"You're not gonna enter?" Ethan quizzed.

"Nah, I only came here to scout the place out," Cain replied. "If I entered, who knows how long I'd be stuck in there. I don't like being a guinea pig, you see. I'll first wait for some reports and then jump in. Besides, I'm still too busy selling you a pitch."

"You were selling me a pitch?"

"Yea, to become a part of my team."

"Oh, right!"

"Besides my daughter," Cain said. "There's plenty other dudes and dudettes that have been vacationing the last few years and are now craving some action."

"Why are you even recruiting me?" Ethan asked abruptly. "You already said you have an Assassin who's better than me."

"And? We could use some young blood, to be honest," Cain sighed. "Most of us are, by now, fairly jaded, old people."

"The Blade Princess, I heard, is like twenty years old."

"Yup. As I said, jaded and old."

"..."

"Khm, I just saw you and saw your immense talent and potential and I don't want my, uh, how do you say it? Rival groups! Right, I don't want rival groups to have you!"

"... what rival groups?"

"Uh... I... there's, there's Blood Dancers--"

"There ain't."

"... Stormchasers?"

"Nope."

"Dreamcatchers?"

"Isn't that a movie?"

"Please tell there's at least a group called Firearms, at least for its ironic value!"

"Yup."

"Fuck yeah!"

"It got destroyed three years ago."

"Goddammit!"

"You really are dumb to everything, aren't you?" Ethan quizzed, feeleing it was quite funny.

"Aah, I have to be honest-- I was too busy raising a daughter the last few years to care..."

"The Blade Princess?"

"No, no, my other daughter," Cain shook his head. "Didn't I tell you? I've got two! Aah, both are just angelic!"

"... fine, you want me for my talent. Even I'm getting embarrassed by this display."

"Ah, it worked again."

"What worked?"

"Creating a situation so embarrassing and awkward that the other party has no choice but to give in," Cain elaborated. "It's my go-to strategy."

"Aren't you afraid of losing at your own game?"

"Losing? Please," Cain shrugged. "You could prop my ma' and pa' in front of him and have them fuck and there'd still be somebody else who will get embarrassed more quickly."

"Really fuckin' weird way of putting it."

"You can't be embarrassed if you embrace the heart of shamelessness," Cain elaborated further as the two moved on. "It's a protective armor that keeps all of the world's ills at bay, granting you infinite defense." ... I'm going to regret this, aren't I?

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