Self-Necromancy

LitRPG Dark Fantasy

Chikao J

Copyright © 2024 by Chikao J

All rights reserved.

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Chapter 44

Chapter 45

Chapter 46

Chapter 47

Chapter 48

Chapter 49

Chapter 50

Chapter 51

Chapter 52

Chapter 53

Chapter 54

Chapter 55

Chapter 56

Chapter 57

Chapter 58

Chapter 59

Chapter 60

Chapter 61

Chapter 62

Chapter 63

Chapter 64

Chapter 65

Chapter 66

Chapter 67

Chapter 68

Chapter 69

Chapter 70

Chapter 71

Chapter 72

Chapter 73

Chapter 74

Chapter 75

Chapter 76

Chapter 77

Chapter 78

Chapter 79

Chapter 80

Chapter 81

Chapter 82

Chapter 83

Chapter 84

Chapter 85

Chapter 86

Chapter 87

Chapter 88

Chapter 89

Chapter 90

Chapter 91

Chapter 92

Chapter 93

Chapter 94

Chapter 95

Chapter 96

Epilogue

Author's Note

Prologue

The smoky, sweet scent that drifted to Kalvin let him know that a visitor had come into his room. He strained against the straps across his chest. His hands dug into the hospital bed and pulled at the handcuffs as he struggled to sit up enough to see over the bed’s railing in order to see his visitor. With a sigh, he collapsed back down into the bed, his head hitting the pillow and his eyes closing once more.

“Is that anyway to treat a guest?” asked the old man in a tan suit, after letting out a thick cloud of smoke from his cigar.

“Is someone still considered a guest when they are uninvited?” Kalvin retorted with a sharp edge to his voice.

The overexertion of suddenly trying to sit upright and straining against his bonds had caused a spike on the numerous machines around him that monitored his condition. Soon the machines began increasing his dosage in order to keep him sedate, making him easier to control. As a drug-fueled haze began to sweep through his mind, Kalvin struggled to listen to the old man’s next words.

“As far as I know, I’m your only guest. Why don’t you show a little more hospitality? After all, who knows how many more times I’ll be able to visit you.”

“Are you… going to die soon, old man? Is your age finally catching up with you?” Kalvin asked quietly. His eyes remained closed as he struggled to remain conscious against the growing haze.

“No lad, it’s not my death I’m worried about. It’s yours. How many more times do you think you can come back from death’s door?”

“Do you think I want to do this? That I had any say in coming here? Who in their right mind would choose this cursed existence?” Kalvin asked tiredly. The drugs sapped away at any outrage or frustration he wanted to convey, turning his voice into a plain, even monotone. Despite their interference, he resisted, shifting his legs and letting the manacles wrapped around his ankles clink against the chains that bound them to the bed as if to assert his point.

“This place will never let you go, even when you can no longer be revived and your soul departs for the next world. They’ll merely shift the focus of their research from your body to your corpse.” The old man sounded almost regretful as he finished speaking.

“I don’t have a choice. I’ve never had a choice. At least this way my family is taken care of,” answered Kalvin as his mind grew cloudy and his consciousness grew faint, the drugs nearly overwhelming him.

“I know, lad… I know,” the old man said mournfully as he stood up. The chair scraped against the harsh cement floors of the room as he pushed it back against the wall and walked to the door. When the old man reached the door, Kalvin heard him pause, as the expected sounds of the door closing and locks turning never came. Instead the old man’s voice drifted back to the almost unconscious Kalvin.

“If you had a chance to free yourself, would you fight for it?”

Kalvin wanted to answer, wanted to say that he would, but the medication made his tongue feel numb, his lips heavy, and his mind slow. When it became clear Kalvin had slipped back into a drug-induced sleep, the old man took a last puff of his cigar and silently closed the door.

Chapter 1

Screams were the first sounds Kalvin heard after his death. As some of the fog clouding his mind cleared, depressing, dry thoughts swirled through him. Did I truly live so poorly that I was delivered to Hell immediately? No judgment at the pearly white gates? Damn, there goes my chance at getting to see Saint Peter.

One by one, his other senses returned. Scent was unfortunately the second. Instead of the rotten egg, sulfur and charcoal odors Kalvin had expected, Hell smelled surprisingly like pine trees and fresh earth. Taste was third; the slightly bitter, slightly sweet, medicinal tastes of nettles and sap formed an unpleasant fusion in his mouth. Then something clicked into place and his senses all roared back to life at once.

Kalvin's body trembled with each new sensation, the earth atop his face crumbling away to reveal breathable air above him. He spat out the dirt and debris that filled his mouth. His eyes snapped open and he came face to face with one of his worst fears. He’d been buried alive.

A thin layer of soil crumbled away from Kalvin as he forced himself into an upright sitting position. His lower body was still buried under three inches of dirt as he twisted around to take in his surroundings.

From his sitting position, his dark brown, nearly black eyes could barely peer out of the three foot deep pit he found himself in. It was the worst possible scenario. Dotting the landscape were large rectangular slabs of stone that jutted out of the ground, like fingers reaching for the sky, tombstones. In front of each tombstone lay a shallow pit of disturbed dirt. Further beyond were rows of heavy iron bars that fenced in the graveyard.

A thick fog prevented Kalvin from seeing further. The tendrils of the fog seemed to crawl at the iron fence closest to Kalvin, creeping right up to the graveyard. Before him, a thin mist made it harder to see than a few feet away inside the walls of the graveyard. It would have been better, perhaps, to not see at all though, as Kalvin watched other murky forms jerk out of graves.

Some of the mist-obscured silhouettes clutched at their faces. Others frantically clawed at the surrounding dirt. A few lifted their heads and screamed into the misty void surrounding them. In front of Kalvin, some ten or twenty feet out, he could faintly discern human-shaped figures in the next step of the waking up process. They ripped their bodies out of the soft earth and clawed free of their graves. 

Kalvin spit some of the grave dirt out of his mouth and wiped it from his face with his right arm. Then, he attempted to copy the others. It was a slow process. His right arm struggled to pry his left arm and left leg free from the dirt. The pale, flaking skin he exposed wrapped tightly around gnarled bones. The complete lack of any muscle was even more evident than usual. Without his typical long sleeves and long pants, the boxers and hospital gown he wore gave him little space to hide his deficiencies.

He pushed down thoughts of remaining in the grave, shoving aside his darker musings as a desire for survival won over. He pulled himself free of the shallow pit. Using his gravestone for support, Kalvin forced his body into an upright, standing position. Things had changed while he’d been crawling out of his grave. The other inhabitants around him had all clawed their way out of their graves and streamed forward to join the growing crowd.

Kalvin glanced around him, looking for any options besides forcing himself to walk across the graveyard to join the distant mob. There were no good options though. To his left and behind him, the iron bars of the fence prevented exit from the graveyard. This isolated corner seemed to hold nothing besides him and the mist. Slowly, he pushed off the gravestone and staggered towards the group before they could get too far away. 

Each awkward, limping step with his left foot sent sparks of pain through his bones and half-rotten nerves. His jaw clenched and a grunt of pain escaped from his lips with each torturous motion. Still, it was better than laying down in his grave and waiting to die, and it was definitely better than laying in a hospital bed, being forcefully kept alive.

Chapter 2

This was Abigail’s worst nightmare. If this was some fraternity’s prank or some social experiment by the college, she was going to sue their pants off. She’d laid down in her bed last night, completely drained from rushing to finish and submit a paper before a one am deadline, only to wake up buried in a graveyard, of all things. 

When she’d seen other figures in the mists, she’d hurried to join them. She thought more about demanding answers and less about safety in numbers. Those thoughts reversed as she neared the back of the group and saw what had brought the slow-moving horde to a halt. 

The front of the mob had pushed a metal gate open. The loud shrieking complaints of the metal had then rung out into the mists beyond the graveyard and something answered the call. Red eyes had opened in the mists, leering at the mob as they answered the whining gates with savage, rasping roars.

Confusion broke out among the mob. Whatever unity had held the mob together, shattered as people went in all different directions. Some streamed towards the eyes and distant silhouettes. Others howled for answers, while still even more fled into the mist on either side of the gate. Abigail found herself with the smallest group, frozen in fear. Her gaze was locked in place by the malice-filled red eyes that were creeping closer.

This isn’t a prank. The thought ran through her mind at the same time as a chill ran down her spine and her body shivered. Abigail watched the other victims of the graveyard approach the creatures in the mist and felt her mouth go dry. Her throat closed, then her lips refused to move. She wanted to scream out, to shout at the frontmost person, to warn the brunette woman in a sweater and jeans who was wagging a finger towards the creatures as she berated them, “Now I don’t know what kind of sick joke this is, but I assure you, once you know who my husband is—.”

The woman’s next words cut off as she gasped. Abigail, from over fifty feet away from the woman, could barely see her freeze in the mist. A moment later, her forward momentum reversed, and the woman backed away from the oncoming bright red eyes. Her arms lifted as if to fend off the gazes.

“What is that — What are you?” The woman’s voice was shaky as she spoke this time, fear of whatever she saw having ripped away the previous attitude.

Abigail’s mouth opened then as both she and the distant woman screamed, the red eyes in the mist having all lurched forward in unison. Red blurry lines creased the mists for a moment and there was a thump as the woman’s body fell. Small, nimble creatures landed atop the body in the next moment, but their features were obscured by the mist. 

Both Abigail’s and the woman’s screams stopped then. Abigail’s screaming had stopped because a hand was being pressed down over her mouth, muffling the noise. The other woman’s screaming had gone silent when wet, sickening thuds and cracking noises came from the pile of creatures crowding around her fallen body.

Abigail looked away then. She ignored the tall, blonde man who stood beside her. One of his hands was outstretched to muffle her screams, while his other pressed a finger to his lips. Normally she’d scream at him, and tell him to fuck off for touching her without asking.  Now, the only thing she wanted to do was stop those disgusting noises. The sequence of sounds repeated endlessly. Brief screams erupted from someone who had charged out of the graveyard, followed by the stomach-churning, wet, ripping, tearing noises.

Abigail’s only available escape was to face away. She closed her eyes and slapped her hands over her ears. All she could do was ignore the grisly sight and try to block out the noises. She tried to focus on something more mundane to distract her, like how much she was going to have to pay a therapist to erase this nightmare from her memories.

Her shoulders shook and shivers ran down her spine as the chilly mist wrapped around her, as if drinking in her fear. When Abigail had finally mustered enough courage to reopen her eyes, she was immediately confronted with a clear reason why she didn’t watch horror movies. The one monster, the one thing that had always unearthed that small, dark corner of her mind, where she kept her darkest memories buried.

Shambling out of the mists in front of her was an undead abomination. Filthy, unwashed hair, dirt-covered, pale skin shined dully in the faint light. An entire side of the creature was utterly devoid of flesh, its bone-white skeleton completely exposed. The dingy hospital gown it wore caused Abigail to shudder as she thought of a zombie outbreak, an infection. 

I have to tell the others, Abigail thought as she stumbled back, forgetting what lay behind her as she let out a shout and pointed at the oncoming threat, desperately trying to warn the other victims of this cruel prank turned nightmare.

“ZOMBIE!”

Chapter 3

Kalvin had been called a lot of names over the years ever since the necrosis had started. Walking undead, zombie, skeleton, freak, and many other more inventive, equally hurtful names. Yet, they had all come from co-workers, ex-friends, or his family members. Hearing the familiar moniker from a total stranger as he stumbled out of the mist pained him on a new level.

His slow, plodding march forward came to a halt as he neared the group of people lingering around the graveyard gates. Kalvin worked his aching jaw muscles and slowly forced down his annoyance at the woman’s shout in order to ask what the hell was going on. He didn’t get a chance to vocalize his question though as the tall, muscular, blonde man beside the offensive woman lunged forward. His body dipped low and to the left before launching a sudden, overhead, right hook directly at Kalvin’s face.

Kalvin’s right arm swept up from below, rising at a diagonal angle. His forearm struck the man’s fist from below and knocked it away. He followed up by planting his right foot in the soft earth beneath him, putting his weak side behind him as he raised his right arm to a guard position. From the corner of his good eye, he saw his left arm twitch, almost as if it was trying to rise and defend him like his right, only to fail due to the limb's lack of musculature.

Any other distractions were lost as the man before Kalvin moved once more, widening his stance and telegraphing the powerful roundhouse kick he was about to unleash.

“STOP!”

Despite the angry shout from the group, the man’s feet moved, twisting to add a rotational force to the strike. It was only as a thin, dark-haired woman dashed between the two that Kalvin’s opponent paused his motion.

“Stop this! This man is a patient at my hospital, and despite that young woman's shout, he is NOT some fictional creature.”

Kalvin’s guard slowly fell as he took in the speaker. Her dark hair was pulled into a bun, and wire-frame glasses rested on the edge of her nose. Thin lips pressed together in annoyance, and her arms were outstretched in a slightly too large white lab coat. It was belated, but Kalvin did eventually recognize her. Not because she was his doctor, or that he’d ever met her, but because her picture hung in the lobby. This was Hospital Director Yelena Abramovich.

His mind wandered back to that first day in the hospital and the moment he’d finally been ruled unfit to work. His family had dropped him in the hospital’s lobby informing no one. Kalvin had spent nearly an entire twelve hours stuck in a remote corner of the hospital. His muscles seized and his body refused to move, leaving him unable to do anything but stare at a large, opulent portrait of the Director. It was only when the night cleaning crew found him there and alerted security was he dealt with.

He snapped out of the memory as the Director finished speaking with the blonde man and turned to address him.

“Patient Zed-667, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve been reading Doctor Wilken’s weekly reports and I must say the project's results are fascinating.”

“Kalvin.”

“Pardon me? What?” Director Abramovich asked as she adjusted her glasses, surprised by the soft melodic whisper coming from the corpse-like man before her.

“My name is Kalvin, not… Zed whatever.”

“Oh. Yes. I’m sure Doctor Wilken included your preferred form of address somewhere in  the footnotes of an early report.”

“Ahem. I’m glad you two know each other, but I think we have more pressing topics to discuss instead of research reports.” The blonde man’s interruption caused Director Abramovich’s spotlight of attention to shift once more, allowing Kalvin to fade into the background and take in his new surroundings.

That lasted about all of five seconds, before he lurched forward. He shouldered through the conversing director and man before him and towards the brunette who was still gaping at him in horror. She stumbled further away from him, backing up slowly as Kalvin labored to sprint across the gap. 

He made it just in time. Kalvin’s right shoulder slammed into the chest of the small, red-eyed, green-skinned creature that had been creeping up behind the young woman. Its surprise leap attack turned into its undoing as even with half his body, Kalvin’s superior size, strength, and weight sent the creature flying back. Its landing was obscured by the mist, but the dull, wet disturbing thud that sounded out as it struck something hard assured Kalvin the creature had been dealt with.

Kalvin wanted to turn back around and yell at the brunette for nearly getting herself killed, or at least march away in a stoic silence. Pretty much anything other than what actually happened would have been okay. After knocking the creature away, Kalvin’s right foot hit the soft earth and slid forward. His left foot automatically reacted by trying to stab into the dirt to steady him. A surge of pain ignited his long dead nerves at the abrupt motion and impact. It was wasted too. The weak leg folded under the pressure and Kalvin went tumbling off the well-worn central path of the graveyard, landing hard in the grass just outside the gates.

Chapter 4

“Are you okay?”

“Patient Zed-667!”

Two very different shouts followed Kalvin’s collapse, neither of which brought a smile to his grim face. 

The blonde man rushed forward to stand behind the brunette woman. His hand gripped her shoulder as he looked her over and conversed with her. He calmed her down and escorted her back through the gates to the relative safety of the iron fenced graveyard. 

Director Abramovich, however, had marched right up to the open gates and stopped, remaining just inside the graveyard. When she was about fifteen feet from where Kalvin lay in the dirt, she shouted at him once more.

“Patient Zed-667! Get back here this instant! You are far too valuable to be running around like that.”

Kalvin stared blankly at the stern-faced woman. What was I supposed to do? Let that thing drag that woman into the mists?

Kalvin began to push himself off the ground, folding his right leg and rolling up to an awkward kneeling position. Then he performed the excruciating and delicate balancing act of forcing himself off the ground with only one arm and one leg. With nothing nearby to prop himself up on, or any assistance from the idle watchers within graveyard, Kalvin struggled and wobbled. The process of standing up, a relatively simple thing for most people, turning into something grueling and slow due to Kalvin’s weakness.

By the time he finally stood up and shambled back to the graveyard entrance, the wet, fleshy noises within the mist had ceased. The red-eyed figures had once again begun marching towards the graveyard. Kalvin’s top speed matched the slowly approaching enemies, enabling him to reach the front entrance and push past the three people who stood just within. 

He crashed to the ground a few steps later, slumping against a gravestone and shivering. Cold sweat ran down his tired body as his body complained at the over exertion. 

The brunette broke away from the others, taking a few trembling, clearly still fearful steps closer to Kalvin before murmuring. “T-Thank you for knocking that thing away.”

Kalvin, with some effort, lifted his gaze from the ground and pondered what to say. How do I respond to the woman who had called me a zombie less than a minute ago?

“There’s nothing to apologize for. It was his fault for scaring you. You wouldn’t have been in that situation if it wasn’t for him.” The tall, blonde man moved to stand beside the woman. He gripped her upper arm, squeezing it slightly as he stared down at her.

“Oh. I suppose so? Thanks?” The woman replied lamely as she looked away from Kalvin. Her eyes turning towards the man beside her as she wrenched her arm free of his grasp.

“Forgive me. Where are my manners? Introductions are in order. My name is Thames. Might I have the pleasure of knowing yours?”

The brunette woman had just managed to push out a terse, “Abigail,” in response before things in the graveyard suddenly changed for the worse. The mist that had lingered in the graveyard, obscuring vision and lending the enclosure a dreary, oppressive atmosphere, receded. A glimmer of hope spread through the eyes of the people surrounding Kalvin. His lips remained pulled into a frown as his eyes drifted to the center of the graveyard and to what had been revealed by the receding mist.

A large mausoleum now stood in the center of the graveyard, decorated in images of angels carrying swords and robed figures wielding daggers. The entire squat, stone building screamed opulence and decaying extravagance. Kalvin’s eyes narrowed as he tried to understand how no one had found the enormous building even when the mists had covered the graveyard. Someone had to have bumped into it when they’d been stumbled around, fresh from their shallow burial.

Everyone’s expression changed, and the glimmer of hope that had been present in the others' eyes was extinguished as the heavy, stone double doors of the mausoleum slowly opened. The doors swung outwards, revealing… no one. The distinct lack of anyone to push the doors open bothered Kalvin, and elicited several nervous chuckles from the crowd around the graveyard's entrance.

Thames had placed himself in front of Abigail as the doors of the mausoleum opened, and upon seeing no obvious threat, the large blonde man strode forward towards the opening. “We should see if there is anything—.”

Whatever else Thames was going to say was cut off by a shrieking howl that tore out of the mausoleum, as if heralding ‌something terrible. She appeared then, perfectly on cue, as the howl faded to silence. A woman floated out of the crypt’s darkness, dressed in a white bridal dress, every inch of her was covered in lace, veils, and a silky white fabric. Only three things stood out to Kalvin, besides the fact that she was currently floating several inches above the ground. 

First, a gauzy white veil obscured the woman’s face, but still swayed back and forth rhythmically, occasionally granting an onlooker a glimpse of the decrepit flesh beneath. Second, the long, delicate, elbow-length gloves the woman wore ended in tears, where sharp, bony fingertips protruded. The third and final hint of something wrong was the only splotch of color that disrupted her otherwise-perfect, elegant white wedding dress; a rusty, brown-red stain above her heart.

A sweet voice rang out from behind the veil as Kalvin finished his examination of the floating woman.

“I’m pleased to see so many prospective Climbers have survived thus far. I am called Izanami, and it is my pleasure to be the first to welcome you to the Tower of Sheol.”

Chapter 5

Kalvin felt the panic spreading through the crowd as the knowledge the woman had just dropped on everyone caused each of his fellow survivors to enter different states of shock. Even he knew about the Towers and the Climbers. From the glowing crystals embedded in the state-of-the-art machines the doctors used to examine him to the mumbling cleaning crew members who dreamed of entering a Tower and changing their life, it had become a part of everyday life. Over the past 5 years, every aspect of society, even the poorest, had benefited from the Towers. 

Towers were dangerous, life-altering gambles and those few who were willing to roll the dice and enter an established White Tower, or unlucky enough to be pulled unprepared into a Black Tower, were called Climbers. At least… Those who survived the Tower and escaped it, were called Climbers. Those who died… were forgotten, turned into another statistic for the sake of progress.

Kalvin leaned back against the tombstone, letting the cold stone bite into his shoulders and ease some of his overheated muscles as his eyes drifted from the woman to the others. There were only twelve survivors left in the large graveyard. Now that the mists had retreated from the graveyard, opting to linger and lurk just outside the iron fence, Kalvin could see just how vast an area he’d found himself. There had to be over eighty open graves behind him, yet only this few remained.

Those who remained weren’t exactly in a great state either as they processed the news they were inside a Tower. Their responses varied greatly from breaking down mentally and denying reality to letting their greed consume them. The latter was something he was familiar with, given his family wore it often. The three he was familiar with, Doctor Abramovich, Thames, and Abigail, all wore expressions of unrestrained hunger as they gazed at the woman who had just told them they were Climbers.

“Is this a Black Tower?” Thames asked.  His brows furrowed and he glanced around at the others, assessing each of them for a moment. Then, he settled on the recipient of his question, the floating bride, Izanami.

“The exterior of the Tower of Sheol is not black,” replied the floating woman.

“So it’s a White Tower? Why are we here then? Did someone kidnap us and dump us here? Aren’t white Towers supposed to be optional?” A small, thin, dark-haired teenager asked in rapid fire as he pushed out of the crowd.

“The exterior of the Tower of Sheol is not white.”

The woman’s answer caused Kalvin’s head to tilt to the side, his brain slowly working through the rumors and gossip he’d heard. Was there a third Tower color?

Apparently some of the others had the same thoughts as they shouted questions at the apparently willing to answer Izanami.

“What color is the Tower then?”

“What are you talking about? There are only two colors of Towers.”

“We didn’t sign up for this. Y-you’ll let us out, right?”

Izanami floated before the mausoleum, her lacy, elegant dress swaying with the wind as the shouts came and went. Finally, as the shouts quieted down, and the survivors waited for answers with bated breath, Izanami extended one claw-like finger, pointing it towards the entrance of the graveyard. “The time for questions and answers has ended. The first trial of many is upon you. Do your best to survive my fledglings.”

Kalvin twisted to gaze out at the swirling mists as Izanami pointed, his stomach sinking as he saw what awaited them. The red-eyed creatures had not stopped their march while the graveyard’s occupants had gawked at the mausoleum and questioned the floating bride. The short, ugly things were now stumbling out of the mists and lunging towards the closest targets.

What happened next was perhaps the stupidest thing Kalvin had ever seen, as the two young men froze in place at the sudden attack of the decrepit, short monsters. One man threw his hands forward and shouted as the monsters approached, “FIREBALL! FROST NOVA! FIREBOLT! LIGHTNING STRIKE! ANYTHIN—”

Nothing happened despite the man’s shouts, and as the creatures tore into him and his fellow with their claws and teeth. His shouts turned to screams and pleas, before finally only the same wet, sickening fleshy sounds filled the entrance of the graveyard. The creatures huddled around the body, tearing into the flesh, hungrily consuming it as the humans backed away.

“Everybody stop! Listen to me! We have little time!” Thames shouted at the remaining survivors as expressions of fear returned to their faces. “There are only seven of them. We are bigger, stronger, and if what the woman says is true, we are Climbers! We can defeat these monsters and become stronger. Think about it for a second! Who doesn’t want to be a Climber? To wield the elements, to be faster and stronger than an Olympic athlete, to be impervious to bullets, or better yet, be able to live a life of luxury.”

Thames’s words seemed effective as the fear transformed, replaced by intentions akin to avarice and megalomania. Kalvin was swayed by Thames’s persuasive words. The idea of wielding magic, or some kind of powerful weapon, played through his mind and caused him to sit up straighter. Even that slight motion brought him back to reality as pain bit into his chest. His failing, rotting heart spasmed inside him, reminding him once more of the consequences of his earlier heroics.

Kalvin sat there, unable to get up and join the others because of his failing body. He watched as they rallied with Thames, shouting more encouragement. “Everyone together! Charge and take them to the ground!”

Greed was a powerful motivator. Kalvin had always known that, but still he was surprised to see every person remaining in the graveyard charge at the small, green creatures. Even Doctor Abramovich had pried off her heels and ran towards the closest monster, flailing them wildly before her in an attempt to strike the vicious looking being.

The entire thing seemed like the start of some heroic story, or a comedic, plucky tale. At least it could have been, if the results of the charge hadn’t been so tragic. The humans had charged forward, but rather than throw their weight into the initial blow, the vast majority of them slid to a stop feet away from their target and punched or kicked ineffectively at the small monsters.

It was like watching a schoolyard fight between kindergarteners, all flailing and no actual strikes. Unfortunately for the humans, though, the red-eyed monsters weren’t interested in fighting. Each of the small fiends leapt from the corpses they were crowded around, digging into the flesh of the next meal that had just offered itself up for dinner.

The only survivor whose initial conflict fared better was, of course, the only person Kalvin had hoped would fail, Thames.

Thames had charged at the monster closest to him in the same manner as he had at Kalvin, shoulder lowered, body hunched, as if he was a linebacker playing American Football. Unlike the others, he didn’t pause as he reached the creature, charging through it with his shoulder and slamming the thing to the ground several feet away. Thames then leapt forward, pinning the still moving creature to the ground and pummeling the thing with his fists in a quick, flurry of blows, until it stopped thrashing beneath him.

Kalvin had the perfect front-row seat to watch from as Thames looked around, upon finishing his fight, to find the other six monsters had torn through his allies like small, whirlwinds of claws and teeth. Worse, a second wave of red-eyed reinforcements had just stepped out of the mist and into the graveyard. As Thames scrambled to his feet, he and Kalvin made eye contact. Kalvin’s calm, dark brown eyes met Thames' enraged, light blue eyes. For a moment Kalvin thought Thames was going to turn and attack him, but ultimately the blonde man turned and charged into the mist, choosing to escape into the unknown rather than stay in the deathtrap the graveyard had become.

That left Kalvin as the sole survivor of the graveyard. He sat there barely thirty feet from the closest monster and, for the first time, inspected the frenzied, hungry creature as it tore into the remnants of its most recent meal. Beneath the fresh crimson and crusted rusty stains, Kalvin spotted green skin that matched the color of foul-smelling pus. Sharp rows of pointed teeth and a long, black tongue showed from its wide, permanently peeled back lips. Its ears, eyelids, and other unmentionable parts were all missing, the soft tissue having long been replaced by a layer of vile rot. 

The creatures' distended bellies wobbled as they stood up from their meal and as a group turned to face him, a never ending hunger emanating from their glowing red eyes as they did so. 

“At the very least, I get to die on my feet,” Kalvin said to the slowly shambling creatures as he gripped the tombstone and slowly forced himself to stand.

Standing for Kalvin, without a nurse or any kind of assistance, was a tedious and slow process. By the time Kalvin had propped himself up with the tombstone, the monsters were nearly upon him. He planted his right foot in the soft earth beneath him and prayed that he wouldn’t slip as the two frontmost monsters closed in on him. He lashed out with a quick jab to the first one's face, driving his fist through the creature’s rotten nose and knocking it back momentarily. The second monster leaned forward then tried to take a bite out of his stomach only to be hit on the top of its head with his right elbow. The creature sank to the floor like a sack of potatoes. 

That gave Kalvin enough time to drive his elbow into the side of the first monster’s skull as it returned to bite at him. Then the show was over. The other four monsters piled atop him, overwhelming his resistance and dragging him down. As he hit the ground, Kalvin closed his eyes and let the pain, his all-too-familiar friend, take him into the sweet embrace of death.

Chapter 6

Waking up when you are dead feels surprisingly similar to waking with a really bad hangover, Kalvin thought as his senses returned and darkness enveloped him. Then the nerves connected to his dead tissue pulsed in pain as he noticed his body once more. He jerked upright instinctively, sending the dirt that had covered him flying.

After shaking out the bits of dirt that had found their way in his nostrils and ears, Kalvin looked around and was greeted to a rather worrying sight. An iron barred fence and swirling fog so thick he could barely see five feet in front of him. As screaming erupted from the surrounding graves, Kalvin’s eyes narrowed as he took in the familiar process of obscured silhouettes forcefully clawing free of their shallow graves.

Brain working on overdrive, Kalvin reached down and brushed away the dirt that covered his stomach and lower half. There was  a distinct lack of teeth and claw marks where he knew those monstrous bastards had been digging in moments before. 

Had that all been some kind of weird fever dream? Is this some kind of weird fever dream? Kalvin pulled himself out of the grave and began the incredibly enjoyable process of shambling across the graveyard on one good leg, while trying to guess where the entrance had been in his dream.

He wandered in circles for several long minutes, narrowly avoiding falling into the shallow graves around him, until he heard soft murmuring coming from his left. Turning, Kalvin shambled towards the voices and soon pushed out of the mists and into a ring of familiar faces standing around the entrance. Doctor Abramovich, the young man who’d asked the final question of Izanami, the idiot who’d shouted at the monsters, and the only person who had noticed his approach, a horrified-looking Abigail who was fled from Kalvin as he approached.

Once again, his lips remained pressed together, despite his desire to cut her off and inform her that he was NOT in fact a zombie, before she could say anything. Even if it had been a fever dream, the woman’s reaction had stung, and as her lips parted and a trembling finger lifted to point at him, it looked like she was about to follow in the dream’s footsteps.

What Kalvin hadn’t expected was a tanned hand coming out of the fog to rest on Abigail’s shoulder and Thames, of all people, to speak up for him. “Relax, he’s not a zombie.”

“W-what?” Abigail stammered as she recoiled from Thames’s sudden touch. Her gaze alternated between the blonde man and the approaching Kalvin.

Kalvin’s lips finally parted then, having summoned enough willpower and energy to ask the woman what this place was, only to have Thames’s voice cut him off.

“He’s not a zombie, that’s what you were about to call him, right? A zombie? He’s not a zombie, just some freak. What you really should be worried about is out there in the mists.” 

Thames punctuated his words by pointing towards the glowing red-eyes that were slowly drawing closer to the entrance.

“Ah, well perhaps you should keep your hands to yourself in the future,” Abigail said as she glared at Thames. She then whirled away from the pair and stomped off towards the entrance, joining the crowd of survivors who were walking towards the red-eyes in the mist.

Kalvin noticed the way Thames’s eyes slid over Abigail’s retreating form as she stomped away from him, and thought perhaps, now was finally the time to speak up. That it was time to warn off the people approaching the monsters in the mist. If it went anything like last time, the screaming and sounds of flesh being torn would start soon. His thoughts were disturbed, however, by another voice shouting, this time at him.

“PATIENT ZED-667!”

Doctor Abramovich was now stalking her way towards him through the mists, having spotted him because of Thames’ earlier speech. Kalvin groaned and let his eyes drift past her towards the survivors fleeing the graveyard. It was too late. Either the dream would be wrong, or those few people running at the red-eyes would soon be their newest meal. The temporary distraction, unfortunately, meant that Doctor Abramovich had ample time to place herself right in front of the hunched Kalvin.

“Patient Zed-667, it’s a pleasure to finally meet you. I’ve been reading Doctor Wilken’s weekly reports and I must say the project's results are fascinating.”

He barely registered how similar her words were to the ones from the dream, as he watched the lead woman, who was currently berating the red-eyed figures for their prank. Finally, as he watched the shadowy figures leap up and attack the woman, he managed a response for the Doctor. 

“Kalvin. My name’s Kalvin.”

Doctor Abramovich either didn’t hear him because of the sudden screaming coming from the dying woman, or she didn’t feel a need to respond. Either way, with the conversation ending and the Doctor’s attention now on the red-eyed creatures in the mist, Kalvin slunk backwards several steps leaning against a tombstone for support once he was sure he was closer to where the mausoleum had appeared in his dream.

Unlike what had happened in his dream though, Thames moved to the front of the entrance standing just outside of the gates and spreading his arms to get everyone's attention before loudly shouting at them to be silent.

“QUIET! Let me explain what’s happening before anyone freaks out!”

Thames paused, scanning the crowd before him, staring intently at anyone who opened their mouth to refuse or complain, and only once he was assured he had their attention he continued. “We are in a Tower! We’ve been selected as Climbers by a Tower. I know this is a scary situation, but I have received training to let me identify a Tower should this event ever occur. Please calm down, retreat to the safety of the graveyard and wait for further instructions.”

Chapter 7

Kalvin narrowed his eyes as he heard Thames’ speech. Dream-Thames had shown no signs of knowing this was a Tower till the mausoleum had appeared and the bride had told them. Now, he was fielding questions from the others as if he was an expert. He explained that monsters would attack their group in waves, and that a guide of some kind would soon appear to explain things. He even told one young man that he could learn to cast a Fireball or Frost Nova if he Climbed the Tower.

Other than himself, the only ones who weren’t taken in by Thames’ speech were Abigail and Doctor Abramovich. Abigail stood off to the side, arms crossed over her chest, as a scowl grew on her lips upon seeing Thames. Doctor Abramovich tapped a finger to her chin in thought, her expression pensive and calculating as she listened to the conversation.

Over twenty people remained behind this time when the mists receded from the graveyard and revealed the Mausoleum with its ornate stonework and heavy double doors. As the doors slid open, a howling shriek heralded a figure from Kalvin’s memory, the wedding dress clad Izanami, and the final metaphorical nail in the coffin that he’d been dreaming. Kalvin was now sure what had happened before had not been a dream. His right hand drifted down to tug at the hospital gown he wore, inspecting his flesh and remembering the stinging pain he had felt when teeth and claws had torn into him. Whatever that had been, it had definitely not been a dream, or vision. He’d been there, lived through that horrifying outcome.

As the bride came to a halt just outside the mausoleum, Kalvin watched Thames step forward. The other survivors parted around him all looking from him to the guide, still in various states of shock.

“Dear lady, are you to be our guide in this Tower?” Thames asked loudly while looking more at the surrounding others than the floating bride with bloodstains on her chest.

“Indeed. I will help to guide each of you through the Tower of Sheol. You may call me Izanami. Let me be the first to greet each of you and congratulate you on becoming Climbers.”

Murmurs ran through the crowd at that. Several people deeply exhaled as if they had been holding their breaths while waiting for the floating woman to confirm what Thames had said. Whispers of “magic”, “money”, and “power” spread out from small pockets of the twenty-or-so people. Kalvin once again saw his familiar friend, greed, as it slowly slipped onto the face of the other survivors. This time though, there was something else besides greed, excitement, and a sliver of reverence or respect. The majority of the survivors were now looking towards the first person to inform them of their new fate, Thames.

The tall, blonde-haired man was drinking in the looks from the others as he stood in front of the group just before Izanami. Kalvin idly glanced away, gazing back towards the entrance, where the glowing red-eyes of the many monsters were drawing closer. Thames, to his credit, seemed to recognize that the monsters would soon be upon the group of survivors and turned to face Izanami.

“Lady guide, it’s said Climbers have access to great powers and unique abilities. It looks like enemies will soon approach. Can you tell us how to activate our potentials so that we can withstand their onslaught?” Thames asked with a prideful grin and a flourish of his hands.

Kalvin almost choked on his saliva, and felt his half-rotten heart rise through his chest in disgust at the insipid, haughty demeanor of Thames. 

Despite Kalvin feeling like Thames was auditioning for some second hand-hand theater troupe, Izanami turned and answered the man sincerely. “All you have to do is say the word, Status, while thinking about the Tower. With that, the shroud will lift and your innate abilities will be unearthed.”

“Status.”

“Status!”

“STATUS!”

Immediately upon hearing Izanami’s response, shouts rang out around the graveyard as each person tried to access their Climber powers. Even Kalvin tried it, imagining one of the dark black Towers that had erupted through buildings or emerged in the center of parks over the last few years. Holding that image in his mind as he murmured a quiet, “status” under his breath.

A silver-bordered translucent black square appeared before him then, floating in space at head height. A quick survey of his surroundings showed other people were most likely experiencing the same thing. The graveyard was suspiciously silent while the other survivors stared off into the space before them. Kalvin saw nothing though, the rumors were most likely true then, without a special device only a Climber could see his or her own status screen.

Kalvin’s attention turned back to his own small screen then and examined the contents.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 0%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

At the top of the screen, just beneath his full name was a disconcerting title, Apprentice of the Damned. It didn’t exactly scream sunshine and rainbows. Level 1 was to be expected, as he hadn’t done anything. The grayed out 10s besides his health and mana left him with a familiar sinking feeling in his stomach as he glanced down towards his decrepit left side. 

A shake of his head warded off the oncoming depression, and he quickly pushed his fingers through the most important thing on the screen, the only thing that might help him survive the red-eyed monsters still approaching: Abilities.

Chapter 8

The Abilities tab was more than a little disappointing, as it only contained a single line of text.

Necrotic Energy Manipulation

With no cost, no explanation, and no obvious way to activate it, all Kalvin could do was the only thing he could think of. He pushed a finger through his screen where the skeletal-white text floated. The text trembled and then flickered quickly to gold.

Kalvin looked around, examining his surroundings once more, hoping that something had changed because of the ability. He would be disappointed, however, as everything was exactly the same, despite the text’s change in color. He turned back to the screen and was in the process of examining the floating line of text for hints, when Izanami’s soft voice interrupted him.

“I hope my answers have illuminated the path before you, and I wish you well on your journey through the Tower. Good luck.”

The realization that he could probably just ask Izanami how his ability worked had just sunk in as she finished speaking and the screaming started.

Everyone had been caught up in the promise of new powers and abilities that no one had been watching the entrance. The first wave of seven red-eyed creatures had simply walked in and leapt on the closest unaware survivors, dragging them to the ground as they rendered flesh from bone.

The screams were short-lived, as the victims soon fell. Kalvin saw the crowd mentality form once again as people backed away as fear set in, only for Thames to rally the survivors.

“There are only seven of them. If we want to survive and Climb the Tower we need to take them out! Join me, use your new abilities, and we can survive! Nay THRIVE!”

The tide changed with Thames’ shout. The retreat ground to a halt and the expressions of the crowd shifted once again. It was what Thames had been waiting for. The blonde man stalked away from the mausoleum and towards the red-eyed monsters who were currently feasting on the downed victims. 

Thames extended a hand towards the air and shouted, “Dawnbringer!”

A beam of light descended from the sky at Thames’s words. It pierced through the fog and for a moment a golden, blinding light obscured the area around Thames’s outstretched hand. When the light faded and the mists closed once more, Thames was now holding a golden short sword in his outstretched right hand.

Kalvin’s eyes slid back to his own screen, where he stared blankly at Necrotic Energy Manipulation. Then he glanced back at the golden sword that Thames was now marching towards the enemies with. A gloomy look settled onto his features as he watched Thames’s lead the other survivors to confront the monsters. Things definitely went… better this time. 

The humans outnumbered the short, bloodthirsty monsters over 2 to 1, and held their ground as the monsters charged them. Kalvin saw glowing fists on more than one survivor, a blue energy wrapped around someone's legs, and flames erupted from one of the would-be-hero's hands. The defensive line the people created looked impressive, but the results were only slightly better than the previous time.

Several people fired bolts of fire and shards of ice at the oncoming monsters, missing wildly and looking more surprised and pleased that their magic had activated, than worried about the fact that it had missed. As the monsters leapt and attacked the defensive line, Thames slid forward and impaled one of the small creatures with his golden short sword taking both it and himself out of the fight as he then struggled to pull the wriggling, dying monster off the hilt of his sword.

The other survivors performed much the same as they had previously, lashing out with fists, kicks, and powers that they had never used before. The vast majority of their attacks failing to connect with the hungry monsters. Of the seven monsters that had attacked, Thames had dealt with one, one had fallen to a lucky flaming fist from a heavyset teenager, and the other five had landed on the chests of various survivors and torn into them.

The remaining greed-fueled people fell upon the hungry monsters as they single-mindedly consumed their meal. At the end of the first wave, only eleven bloody, wide-eyed, shell-shocked survivors and Thames still lived.

The second wave of red-eyed creatures fell upon them then. Despite how Thames shouted and screamed at the others, only a few resisted the new onslaught. Most instead stared down at hands and clothes covered in blood in shock, and for a moment Kalvin thought about what they must have been doing before this, only a few minutes ago to them. Studying for an exam? Shopping for groceries? Collapsing on the couch after a long day of work?

None of them were prepared for this, most of them had never even considered something like this could happen to them, and it showed now. The small red-eyed fiends clawed through the remaining survivors like a hot knife through butter, with only the Doctor Abramovich surviving and fleeing into the mists this time. Thames made a foolhardy, but valiant attempt at escaping before being encircled and taken down.

When the first of the little gluttons lifted its head from its meal and stared at Kalvin, he knew it was his turn next. Not expecting anything to happen, but hoping for a miracle, Kalvin tapped on his only listed ability once more. No sword of light descended, the enemies weren’t swept away by a sudden avalanche, nor were they suddenly engulfed in flames. Instead a strange double vision overtook him. In his healthy right eye, everything was normal, yet in his decaying left eye the bodies of the dead survivors, dead monsters, and the still animated monsters showed with a pale gray energy.

“Necrotic energy?” Kalvin murmured softly as he pushed off the tombstone to meet the nearest monster's attack. 

He’d gotten a little better at dealing with them now. A swift right hook nearly caved in the grotesque face of the first blood-covered fiend and allowed him to advance towards the nearest fallen survivor that glowed with that strange gray energy. The first enemy dropped to the ground beneath him and he stepped past it, drawn towards the sight of the energy as it slowly wafted up from the corpses before him. A sweet smell caused him to pause. 

It was divine, like the scent of hot chocolate on a cold day, or a sip of Gatorade after running a mile. Kalvin stopped in place and instinctively reached out towards the scent. His mind temporarily went on autopilot as saliva pooled in his mouth and hunger consumed him. Drifting up from the corpse of the small ferocious monster he’d just dispatched was more of the thin gray energy. His right hand pushed through it and felt nothing. Yet in his desire-filled state, he’d reached out with both hands, and as his skeletal left hand brushed against the gray vapors streaming off the body, he felt something other than pain in his hand for the first time.

Kalvin was so entranced by the sight of the gray vapors trickling into his skeletal hand and the ecstasy of feeling the chilly mist on his long dead skin that he failed to respond as he was surrounded and dragged to the ground by the tiny little monsters. He only noticed the change when the world went black around him, the feeling vanished and the searing, ever-present pain returned.

Chapter 9

Cautiously, he opened his mouth to taste the darkness and promptly spat out the dirt that tumbled into his mouth. Kalvin jerked upright, sitting quickly as he coughed and hacked up the dirt.

“What a terrible idea.”

Once the taste of dirt was cleansed from his mouth, Kalvin dragged himself out of the shallow grave, while ignoring the surrounding screams. When he was clear of the pit, he let his back rest against the side of his tombstone, crossed fingers and murmured, “Status.”

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 0%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

It was there. The screen and everything he’d learned from Izanami in the past dream, or perhaps his past life, was still there. A quick flip over to the Abilities section revealed that Necrotic Energy Manipulation was still listed. He tapped on the screen and turned the silver text to gold, letting his ability activate before he checked his two unexplored tabs.

The Achievements tab, predictably, held nothing. It made sense to Kalvin in an odd way. He had achieved nothing in this new world yet, so it was understandable that the tab was blank. The Titles tab and its singular entry, however, made far less sense to Kalvin. 

Titles:

Apprentice of the Damned (Unique): One of the rare few granted an opportunity to learn about Death from a Greater Being.

The longer Kalvin stared at the final two words, Greater Being, the deeper his scowl intensified and the more furrowed his brows became. There was only one person who came to mind. That was the old man who had always snuck into his hospital room and smoked those foul-smelling cigarettes beside him. 

Is it his fault that I’m here? I… I thought I was losing my mind each time he came in. Kalvin’s lips pursed and his scowl unfurled. The nurses and doctors had never mentioned the awful, lingering smoke of the man, nor did any visitors. Not that he had anyone who knew where to visit him. He’d always just assumed the old, suit-wearing man was some kind of administrator, who was flaunting the rules by smoking… There is someone here he could ask, though.

Kalvin’s dark brown eyes scanned through the misty graveyard and his frown returned. The screaming had stopped and someone near the entrance was shouting something. Having more than an inkling about who might raise his voice only thirty seconds after waking up in a graveyard, Kalvin began to painfully shamble towards where Doctor Abramovich and his answer waited.

He had just stumbled out of the mist and into the small clearing before the open iron gate that marked the entrance to the graveyard when a beam of light pierced through the fog. It illuminated the area and streaked into the hand of a previously obscured silhouette at the front of the group, Thames. The golden light morphed into a sword as it made contact with the blonde man’s hand. Thames then proceeded to monologue while gesturing with the sword towards the red-eyes glaring at their group from within the mist.

“This is my proof! We are in a Tower. There are monsters who will arrive shortly and attack us. Listen to me! I have received training. I know what to do upon being selected to become a Climber! Just say the word ‘Status’ while picturing a tower in your mind.”

Thames had corralled over thirty people at the entrance this time. Despite that, Kalvin still saw people escaping into the mists, and one or two people running at the mist-wrapped monsters and shouting at them. The larger crowd and greater number of survivors came with its downside though. Several people gazed at Thames suspiciously, rather than with the respect and reverence the man had received in the last iteration. 

Thames himself was different, too. The previously well put together man now had wide-eyes, his hands trembled slightly, and he’d occasionally clutch at a body part and wince. These were all motions that Kalvin was all too familiar with. Phantom pain was one of the worst things he’d had to deal with when his left side had failed and the nerves there had died. The constant pain had been so overwhelming he’d gone into Urgent Care Clinics and Emergency Rooms repeatedly, but each time they’d told them there was nothing they could do. 

A twinge of sympathy ran through Kalvin at the memory. He slowly shuffled through the crowd, wanting to offer a word of comfort to the blonde man. Perhaps if Thames was truly repeating this hellish cycle of life and death with him, they could ally and work together to escape. He had just reached the front of the group when the mist dispersed inside the graveyard and the mausoleum appeared behind him.

The crowd surged away from the appearing structure as the howl rang out and the doors opened to release Izanami. Kalvin struggled with maintaining his balance and staying upright as the mob packed tightly against the entrance. The mob was unwilling to exit the graveyard, yet unwilling to confront the bloody bride who floated before them. Thames it seemed had a different approach to the arrival of their guide. Stepping forward the blonde man shoved his way through the crowd, knocking aside the people who got in his way in order to get to the mausoleum.

“You! Tell me how to defeat the little red-eyed freaks!” Thames demanded as he pointed his glowing sword at the graceful, veiled bride.

Kalvin watched from his new seat on the ground, having been one of the people in between Thames and the mausoleum. His precarious balance had failed when he’d been shoved aside. The surrounding survivors seemed to hold their breath collectively as they watched Thames confront the eerie bride. To Izanami’s credit, she didn’t falter for even a moment. Her clawed finger pinched her skirt slightly as she bobbed in the air and gave the disheveled Thames a curtsy before speaking.

“Greetings. I am known as Izanami. Please let me be the first to welcome you into the Tower of Sheol, and congratulate you on becoming a Climber.”

“YES! YES! I know all of that, tell me how we defeat those red-eyed creatures and how many of them are hiding in the mists!” Thames replied with a snarl, his hand now shaking as it held the sword extended. Its glowing golden tip pointed towards the bloody stain on the wedding dress Izanami wore.

“Could you please specify which red-eyed creature you are talking about? I’m sorry, perhaps I could be more useful if you brought said creature here. I’d be happy to identify it for you then,” Izanami said as she bowed her head to Thames, somehow sounding both gloomy and cheerily helpful at the same time.

Thames growled as he twisted away from the mausoleum. 

The blonde swordsman stomped back through the crowd and straight through the entrance, bellowing out to the mists once he stood on the dirt path just outside the gate.

“COME GET IT YOU FUCKERS!”

Chapter 10

Thames’s shouts into the fog were answered quickly, as two red-eyed little fiends scurried forward and rushed the man. Kalvin had thought that the others would help this time, or at least those who had ranged abilities would try and strike the monsters, but no one moved to assist the increasingly unraveling blonde man.

For his part, Thames did better than his first time at least, managing to thrust the pointed tip of his sword through the first monster and withdraw it in time to fend off the second creature’s teeth. Its sharp claws tore into Thames’s right arm and he let out an infuriated roar and swept his sword through the creature's head, spitting it in twain.

Grumbling and still bleeding, Thames gripped one of the small creature's bony feet and dragged the ugly thing inside of the graveyard, through the stunned crowd and dumped the corpse before Izanami.

“So answer me now. What is it? How many of them are out there? And what’s the best way to kill these fuckers?” Thames asked with blood still trickling down from his arm, his fierce blue eyes focused solely on the floating woman.

“Oh. Well, when it was alive, it was called a goblin. Foul little creatures with green skin and a propensity for rapid reproduction. When you killed it though, it was a Ravenous Lesser Ghoul, an undead of the lowest class suffering from one of the worst afflictions, a hunger so extreme it rotted away what little remained of the creature's mind and drove it to constantly consume prey. As for how to kill it best, Radiant damage of course,” Izanami said smoothly as she tapped a clawed finger against the small monster’s distended belly.

“You didn’t answer one of my questions. How many of them are out there!?” Thames demanded in a shout as he lifted his sword to point it towards Izanami.

“Well, it’s a difficult thing to answer. When you asked originally, only twenty, perhaps. Now though? Forty-two, Forty-three, Forty-four. Do you see the problem, Climber? No matter what answer I give you, it will be wrong, but a moment later.” 

The entire interaction brought a smile to Kalvin’s lips. Not only because it seemed like Izanami’s responses were given with a knowing smile to Thames, or Thames was increasingly losing his mind, but because there was now a corpse only a few feet away from him.

Through Kalvin’s left eye, he watched as the pale gray energy wafted up from the dead monster, slowly dispersing into the mists. When Thames stepped away from Izanami, seemingly satisfied with her answer, Kalvin hobbled forward, drawn to the energy by the recent memory of the ecstasy it had provided.

Kalvin collapsed beside the corpse as Thames directed the other survivors to the entrance. He instructed them through force of will and sheer volume to stand in place and face the enemies coming, promising them power like his while he waved around his sword. A single touch of his skeletal left fingers to the vapor-like energy above the corpse caused the shouting behind him to fall away.

The next few minutes, or hours, were wonderfully pain-free. Kalvin fell into a trance, his eyes still open yet seeing nothing as his body relaxed and slowly drew the energy from the corpse into his own body. It felt like all the aches and pains in his body were slowly being washed away by a cool, gentle touch. Muscles Kalvin had completely forgotten about started to loosen and tension left his body. Contrary to his previous belief that this might be hell, he wondered if this was what heaven would feel like.

Unseen to both the survivors fighting against the waves of undead monsters, and the enthralled Kalvin, a soft smile peeked out from behind the veil of the bride, who watched over them.

When Kalvin finally emerged from his trance the shouting, screaming, and wailing had all ceased, only the sickeningly wet sounds of flesh being consumed raw filled the eerie graveyard. He let out a low, guttural groan as he was forced back to reality so abruptly. His eyes glanced down and searched for the gray energy and found nothing. A quick check of his Status screen and Abilities tab revealed that Necrotic Energy Manipulation was still active. The corpse’s energy had just run dry.

Turning back around, Kalvin found himself face to face with a massacre. He didn’t know what exactly had happened while he was absorbing the energy and enjoying a pain-free existence, but he could guess from the carnage before him. Undead goblins, Ravenous Lesser Ghouls, as Izanami had called them, were chomping down on his fellow Climbers. It looked like Thames and the others had done better this time with just over fifteen dead monsters.

The best part about what Kalvin saw was the potent gray energy that swarmed over the cramped entrance of the graveyard. He took a few unfaltering steps forward and walked into the sickly energy that blanketed the ground. That small motion was all it took for the hungry little creatures to jerk their heads up and gaze at him with their unblinking, glowing red eyes.

They were on him then. Six of the monsters rose from their meals and rushed towards the mostly fresh meat hanging from his bones. He took the same approach as before, driving his right fist into the skull of the first monster and driving his elbow into the jaw of the second creature. Then it was over, or at least… it should have been.

Chapter 11

Kalvin had expected to fall down after the two strikes, but as the next creature leapt at him, his left arm came up and struck the small ghoul in its distending belly, knocking it out of the air. He froze for a moment, preparing for the pain that came with using his left side, but… nothing happened. No pain, no searing nerves, or sudden spasm of his heart from the exertion came. He felt… fine.

The final three monsters seemed to argue against that feeling though, as they dove at him all at the same time. The monster on his left was met with a backhand from his skeletal arm. It took the blow directly and wrapped itself around the decrepit limb, temporarily slowing Kalvin. The monster's direction before him was met with a quick, front snap kick from Kalvin’s left leg. His heel drove perfectly into the monster's face and tossed it back.

It wasn’t enough, though. The third creature latched onto his right arm and tore into it. The combined undead menaces dragged him to the ground. Kalvin twisted, letting his legs fold beneath him as he forced his weight to the left and dragged the undead goblin with him. He slammed the goblin to the ground first, landing atop it and driving his bony left shoulder into its chest.

The monster clung desperately to his body dug, clawing away at his flesh with its claws and ruining Kalvin’s temporary reprieve from pain. He roared at the creature and tried to grip the wriggling thing as its teeth tore a chunk out of his arm. Kalvin was forced to watch as the monster swallowed down his flesh raw while he struggled to knock it away. Finally, he gave up on trying to get his arm free and leaned forward.

Once positioned, he slammed his forehead down onto the ghoul’s face, smashing into its nose and mouth. Even knocking some of its teeth loose. The creature swayed, its grip loosening with the impact. Kalvin slammed his head again and again and again into the thing’s face until it was a grotesque bloody pulp and it finally tumbled off him to rest on the ground.

Kalvin lay there staring up into the mists, struggling to catch his breath as tried to think through what would happen next. He was bleeding badly. The single fight had taken a lot out of him. Being confined to a hospital bed hadn’t helped him stay in shape. However, one good thing had come from his new position on the ground. As he lay there, the sickly gray energy swarmed to him, streaming up from the nearest corpses of both monster and survivor alike.

He let his right hand reach up, pushing through the mists and seeing it part, swerving around his healthy limb like it had before. But this time, not all of it streamed into his left side. Small parts of the deathly energy crept down his arm and invaded the bloody gash the monster’s mouth had torn up. A cooling sensation came from the wound, like it was being washed with clean, cold water. After a few moments, the profuse bleeding slowed, then stopped, and the gray energy no longer continued flowing into his healthy right arm.

Kalvin slowly extracted himself from the crushed monster beneath him and stood. Surveying the massacre around him once again brought the reality of the situation to the forefront of his mind. Kidnapped, trapped inside a Tower, and forced to Climb it. A soft smile broke out across his face at his next thought. It’s better than being confined to a hospital bed and waiting to die.

“Now, for some answers,” Kalvin murmured as he glanced around him once more. He spotted the deceased Doctor Abramovich and made a quick mental note to ask her about the old man in his next life, before he turned to the only other person who remained upright in the graveyard, Izanami.

Up close there was something beautiful and threatening about the woman. The way the dress hugged her form, the layers of lace and soft white silk, and how the gauzy veil swayed across her face, all lent her an air of mystery. At the same time, she was the person who knew the most. Kalvin squirmed slightly as he came to a halt in front of Izanami and an uncomfortable feeling of familiarity, of déjà vu, washed over him as he stared at the blank veil.

“Hi, I’m Kalvin. One of the people supposed to be Climbing the Tower,” he said finally as he extended an open hand to Izanami.

For a second nothing happened and Kalvin started to lower his hand, only to freeze in place as Izanami lifted a slender clawed hand and gently placed it in his. Her hand was soft and cold to the touch. She spread her fingers out so her long clawed fingertips were just enough so they didn’t pierce his flesh as they shook hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Climber Kalvin. How may I assist you this evening?”

An odd thought struck Kalvin then, and he glanced up at the mist shrouded sky.“How do you know it’s evening when you can’t see the sky?”

“It’s always evening here,” Izanami replied cryptically.

“Here as in this floor or the Tower in gene— Actually, never mind, let’s not get sidetracked. Izanami, do you mind if I ask you some questions?”

“Are you asking me a question, in order to ask if it’s alright to ask more questions?” A small laugh slipped out from behind the veil before Izanami continued. “Either way, I don’t mind. I’ll answer all your questions to the best of my ability, Climber Kalvin.”

“Great! First question. Why do I keep coming back to life?”

Chapter 12

“Coming back to life?” Izanami repeated Kalvin’s question back to him. “Could you elaborate so I could better assist you?”

“When I die here.” Kalvin gestured around him, before pointing back towards the far corner where his grave lay. “I wake up back over there and do everything all over again. All of it. The dying, the fighting, the monsters, the mausoleum, even you. And no one else seems to be bothered by it. Well, almost no one else.”

“I see. I’m sadly not equipped to answer your question and I don’t think even if I knew the answer, that it would be particularly satisfying for you to know,” Izanami replied after some hesitation.

“W-what? What does that even mean? Particularly satisfying for me to know? Lady, I’m dying and coming back to life. Of course, answers to that are going to be satisfying for me to know.”

“I’m sorry Climber Kalvin, I don’t have any answers for you on that subject. Perhaps it would be in your best interest that upon leaving the Tower you seek treatment for whatever affliction affects you.”

“Seek treatment?” Kalvin repeated back to Izanami as he blinked to clear his confusion.

Izanami, the gracious hostess, waited, while Kalvin sorted out his emotions. When he opened his mouth to reply, he caught himself, paused and tried a different approach.

“Are you saying that what’s happening to me, waking up back in that grave, over there, is not related to being kidnapped by the Tower?”

“Whatever issues you are referencing, I am completely unaware of, and I am unsure as to why you would think that they have anything to do with the Tower of Sheol. As I am a proud member of the Tower of Sheol, I would also ask that you refrain from using such a term as kidnapped. I’d prefer… chosen, or perhaps selected. It’s considered to be quite an honor to become a Climber after all,” Izanami answered with a melodic, cheery tone.

Suddenly Kalvin knew exactly how Thames had felt earlier when Izanami had failed to answer him. A low groan escaped his lips as he clutched his head and tried to think how to rephrase his question.

“Okay, how about this? Are you saying that becoming a Climber, has nothing to do with me coming back to life every time I die?”

“All Climber-related information should be present on your Status screen or one of its tabs,” Izanami answered succinctly.

“And if my Status says nothing about coming back to life?” 

“Then it would be safe to assume it would be unrelated to your status as a Climber. Have you ever triggered this power before becoming a Climber?”

“You mean have I ever died before becoming a Climber and woke up alive in a grave? Well, no.”

“There you have it then. It’s very possible this is an unrelated phenomenon. In the future, please keep your questions related to the Towers or Climbing.” 

Kalvin’s right eye twitched as he played through Izanami’s answer in his head. It made… a kind of sense? How would he have known that he would come back to life without dying? Maybe he had just needed to be buried first? Kalvin shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He was getting distracted. It doesn’t matter how I came back alive, as long as it lets me escape from this hellhole. Who really cares? 

Alright, maybe it’s kind of a big deal, but it’s a big deal for later. Kalvin took a deep breath and wracked his brain for which questions to ask Izanami, until finally he stumbled into what he thought was a pretty good idea.

“What questions should I ask… Izanami, pretend you were in my shoes, my position, completely unaware of Towers and Climbers, except for the fact that they exist. What questions would you ask the guide?”

Izanami lifted a hand and seemed like she was about to speak, only to pause and tilt her head. A clawed fingertip lightly grazed her veil as she seemed to consider both the question and Kalvin for several minutes before deigning to answer.

“I would ask about whatever abilities are listed on my Status, understanding them would be the key to success inside a Tower. Then I would ask about how to level up.”

“Okay. Izanami, what can you tell me about Necrotic Energy Manipulation?” Kalvin asked as he opened his Abilities tab and read off the ability’s name.

“Well, it means one can manipulate death, or at least the energy created by dying. You can think of inflicting damage to an opponent as the same thing as killing a part of them or causing cells in their body to die. That creates Necrotic Energy, which can harm, animate, and in rare cases, even heal. Manipulation-type skills are often incredibly hard to master. For example, Thermal Energy Manipulation users often subject themselves to repeated extreme temperature fluctuations to better understand how to perceive their energies and grasp them. Even then just because you can’t manipulate a certain kind of energy doesn’t mean you can do it well. The user must be incredibly in tune with said energy to even get it to move, let alone give it a functional shape or use it effectively.”

Kalvin cocked his head to the side, listening and digesting Izanami’s instructions. When she finished, his head swam with possibilities and for a moment the options. The sheer number of choices on how to use his Necrotic Energy Manipulation overwhelmed him, until he remembered he had a cheat.

“Izanami, if you had just received Necrotic Energy Manipulation and were attempting to survive and Climb a Tower with no other abilities, how would you use it?”

“I would practice with it. I would spend time in environments rich in Necrotic Energy and try to shape the energy into a solid object. Preferably something simple and small like a knife so that I would have a way to inflict damage on my enemies,” Izanami replied smoothly, with no hesitation, none of the previous deflection or guile showing in her current answer.

Kalvin glanced back towards the battlefield behind him. He had unknowingly drained all the necrotic energy away without shaping anything and now felt a tinge of regret at the waste. He had turned back to face Izanami when a sudden movement to his left drew his attention. His instinctive desire to not be touched saved his life then as he jerked away from the oncoming appendage, narrowly avoiding the pointed tongue that had stabbed at his throat.

Unfortunately, that left Kalvin staggering backwards as the long-limbed, pale humanoid creature clawed into his chest, cracked open his rib cage, and dug into his insides, killing him before he could even hit the ground.

Chapter 13

Waking up covered in dirt was becoming normal to Kalvin. The problem was going from a relatively pain free existence, back to his aching, wretched existence in the blink of an eye. Each time it left him writhing in agony as he rebuilt his mental defenses and slowly blocked out the pain. By the time he’d staggered out of his grave and towards the center of the graveyard where the mausoleum should appear, things had wildly changed from last time.

It was Thames again, which confirmed it for Kalvin. Someone else was repeating the same cycle of deaths. The tall, blonde man was standing near the entrance with a group of five young men, lecturing them on something. Judging by the sword in his hand, his disheveled appearance, and the way he gestured towards the red-eyed Lesser Ghouls lurking in the mist outside the graveyard, he was preparing them for the oncoming onslaught.

Thames being occupied meant that there had been no attempt to stop the fleeing survivors. As Kalvin approached there he saw the remaining twenty people wearing horrified expressions as they stared into the mists and listened to the wet, fleshy, crunchy sounds coming from their deceased fellows. It also meant there was no one to stop Abigail from screaming at Kalvin as he neared the entrance.

“ZOMBIE!”

Kalvin let out a deep sigh at the unintended insult. He watched passively, feeling more than a little numb to the gazes of people around him as Abigail staggered backwards, fleeing from him and exiting the safety of the graveyard. Dragging his aching body forward, his left side sent complaints into his chest with every motion despite his best attempts to re-balance on his right leg as much as possible. He still struggled forward, even as Abigail clasped her hands over her mouth and gaped at the hunched man she’d insulted. This unknowingly put herself in the perfect position for a small undead monster to leap out of the mists and claw at her back.

He barely reached her in time. The tips of the creature's claws dug into Abigail’s back, eliciting a shriek, just as Kalvin’s right shoulder slammed into the creature's side and knocked it to the ground. His right foot lifted and stomped down on the monster’s chest, ending the fight before it could retaliate.

Abigail murmured something to Kalvin, before she fled back into the safety of the graveyard clutching at her wounded back. Kalvin failed to register Abigail’s words or even her retreat to safety as for the next few seconds he drank in the sickly, gray energy of death that wafted up from the small corpse.

When he finished absorbing the energy, Kalvin felt like a man who had just had a drink of water after walking through a desert. His entire body felt relaxed, and he craved more. A ‘Tsk’ left his lips as he looked down at the drained creature beneath him and then out into the mists where other creatures waited. His skeletal left hand curled into a fist as he contemplated charging into the mists just to see how far he could get. Yet for now he unclenched his hand and stalked back into the graveyard. 

Kalvin walked with his back a little less hunched and his body’s aching now reduced to a mere dull throbbing pain. Still, he dragged himself to the closest tombstone and reclined against it as he waited for the mausoleum to appear and to see what Thames was attempting to do with this life.

The blonde man had led the five young men towards the center of the graveyard and seemed to be in the midst of sparring with them while getting them to activate their abilities. One blue-haired teenager fired a bolt of frost into the ground near their feet. Thames then took him aside and directed him to shoot the frost bolts at a distant tombstone in order to practice his aim. The others seemed to wreath their limbs in different types of elemental energy and each practiced a series of straight punches and kicks with Thames. Overall, it reminded Kalvin of children learning martial arts for the first time, a rather nostalgic sight for him, that elicited memories of his grandfather attempting to teach a much younger Kalvin.

It wasn’t long before the mists cleared from the graveyard and the mausoleum appeared in the center. Thames left his followers then and went to stand with Izanami, speaking with her as more of the unaffiliated and uninitiated survivors left or gawked at the magic-wielding five. Kalvin took a deep breath and settled in to wait, deciding to count the time between the mausoleum appearing and the first attack.

He had just counted 599 rubber duckies when the first shout of alarm came from the entrance. Kalvin pushed off from the tombstone, planning to meet the first wave of monsters at the entrance and reap the energy their deaths brought, only to be interrupted by Thames.

“All non-combatants, get back! Men form a line at the entrance! Sorren at the center!”

The five young men all rushed forward, their faces steeled with determination, and for a moment Kalvin wondered what Thames had told them to give them such courage. Sorren turned out to be the blue-haired young teenager with the bolts of frost. Thames, to his credit, stood in front of Sorren at the center of their group and shouted orders as the first waves leapt at them.

Chapter 14

The results of the attack were surprising to Kalvin. Thames met the monsters at first. He struck one creature, cleaving it in half with his golden sword before he dashed back. The vicious, nimble monsters leapt after the retreating Thames, only for the frontmost monster to be met by a bolt of frost to its face. Sorren, upon firing the bolt, backed up, creating space for Thames, who turned as he regrouped with the others. 

Another swift sword stroke cut away a monster's outstretched arm, leaving only three and a half lesser ghouls to face the five, emboldened youths. The numerical advantage combined with Thames’ crash course in combat showed results then as they held their ground and engaged the undead. Several of the young men kicked out and only landed glancing blows, yet one managed to land a fire-wreathed punch into the chest of one fiend at the same time.

Down to two and a half, the clawed monsters were finally within range and laid into the closest youth, who had managed to completely miss with his first kick and landed off balance. The teeth and claws of the ravenous undead sank into the young man's thighs and legs, tearing chunks of flesh away with hungry abandon. That same hunger was their demise, though, as the other combatants fell upon the two ghouls as they fed and crushed them under a hail of punches and kicks.

When all was said and done, Thames' defense had actually gone better than his previous attempts. He said a few words to the injured combatant and as a group, they carried their fellow away from the entrance before returning to meet the second wave. Kalvin didn't care about any of that, however, and barely registered the movements of the others.

Instead, his focus was fully centered on the pale gray vapors trickling off the corpses. Kalvin shanked closer to where the bodies lay, making it within fifteen feet of the entrance before leaning against a nearby tombstone and attempting to follow Izanami's instructions from his last life.

Manipulating the energy was harder said than done, though. Previously, he had just immersed himself in the vapors and let his body passively absorb it. He tried beckoning with his hands, mentally tugging on the strands of energy, and softly calling for it under his breath, all to no avail.

Kalvin shot a frustrated glance back at the floating bride, trying to remember what exactly she had said. Something about being ‘in tune’ with the energy, Kalvin’s eyes narrowed at that. Izanami had likened necrotic energy to the energy of death, and no living human knew more about death or dying than Kalvin. He’d spent the last three years of his life in a perpetual state of half-death. Even before then, when the necrosis began to slowly consume his body, death had been an everyday friend for nearly his entire life. 

He thought about how everyone got it wrong. Death, decay, and rot weren’t just cold, detached things that you observed from afar. It had felt like stinging nettles constantly brushing just beneath his skin when his muscles decayed. His nerves had started to constantly burn with pain as they slowly withered. Each movement from his body during those days had caused a searing fire to scorch his insides. All of this was part of death, of life itself.

Kalvin was so lost in his morose pondering that he missed when the tendrils of energy first stretched across the distance, reaching for him longingly. When the cold, soothing energy finally brushed against his legs and traveled up his body, he snapped out of his murky musings and gazed down at the now retreating energy. A frown creased Kalvin’s brows as he watched the tendrils recede from him.

Around him, chaos ensued as the others fought for their very survival while Kalvin let his eyes close and tried to focus on those memories. The feeling of death, the taste of decay, how his withering nerves stung at his very core. It wasn’t long untill he felt it crawling up his legs once again. The soothing tendrils of gray energy were truly pleasant. His mind faltered then, losing concentration as elation washed over him at the feeling of success.

He quickly pulled his focus back to the morose memories and after some time, when he was sure he wouldn’t lose concentration again, Kalvin opened his eyes to see the results of his training. A thin tendril of gray had stretched out from an ever-increasing mass of bodies near the entrance. It had wrapped up his left leg and coiled around his torso, ensconcing him in its chilly embrace.

The amount he had manipulated to him was miniscule compared to the writhing mass of energy that hovered around the entrance. It was almost time for him to fight, to see if he could get any further. Only two people still stood and fought at the entrance of the graveyard. Sorren was now fighting with his fists and kicks, only occasionally sending out a bolt of frost.  Abigail was the other survivor and her fingertips shone with a faint, golden radiance.

Kalvin briefly thought about rising to help them, but Abigail’s repeating shock at his appearance and Thames’ constant scornful words caused him to hesitate. The momentary pause was all it took for the next wave of undead to swarm over the pair and drag them down to join their fellows. Leaving Kalvin alone, to face off against a wall of Ravenous Lesser Ghouls. Joining it was a large human-sized monster with its long, sharp tongue hanging out of its stretched, skinless mouth as it crawled around the battlefield.

Chapter 15

Kalvin didn’t advance. He let monsters eat their meal and gathered the surrounding vapors, until finally the humanoid creature sniffed the air and caught his scent. It rapidly began crawling across the ground on its freakishly long limbs in his direction. Now that he could truly see the creature that had killed him last time, Kalvin felt a shudder of disgust run down his spine. It was a vile, disproportioned monstrosity, with patches of pale skin that only partially covered black, rotten muscles beneath. Its long, ichor-coated tongue was not just sharp, but had a serrated, jagged edge to its tip as if the monstrous appendage had been designed to tear flesh.

He waited till the monster was nearly upon him, his chest tightening as he held his breath. His eyes watched as its tongue pulled back, the muscles coiling and tensing as it prepared its first strike. Just as it launched the sharp serrated tongue at his chest, intent on ripping into his ribcage, Kalvin exploded forward. Having predicted the straight forward piercing attack, he dove to the right, letting the deadly tip soar over his left shoulder as he lunged beneath it. He connected with a right hook then, putting his forward momentum and weight into the blow, as he drove his fist into the monster’s chest.

Unlike the smaller Ravenous Lesser Ghouls that would have crumbled beneath the powerful strike, the taller pale monster proved to be more resilient. The monster stumbled back several steps, a deep indent showing on its chest as it hissed and screeched. Whether it was in pain or outrage, Kalvin didn’t know, and didn’t care to find out. He accelerated towards the monster. For the first time in a long time, he was moving fluidly, in complete control of his body. His thin left foot struck the ground, and he pressed off the shallow earth as he brought up his right leg and drove a roundhouse kick into the monster’s side. His shin struck just below its ribcage and cleaving into the soft flesh there, going through the body of the disgusting monster and only stopped when his shin bounced off its ribcage.

Kalvin pulled back then, retreating from the probing tongue that had retaliated by striking towards where his leg had been. His foot hit the ground while the tongue was still extended past him. His hips spun, and he threw a right hook once more at the chest of the monster, finally caving it in. The creature tumbled to ground and let out a single mournful howl before sickly, gray energy wafted up from its body, signifying it had finally died.

With the biggest threat out of the way, only eight of the Ravenous Lesser Ghouls remained. His shoulders rolled and his body stretched out in a way he hadn’t been able to do for nearly a decade. A smile spread across Kalvin’s face then as he reveled in the blissful feeling while advancing into the mess of monsters and corpses.

It was grim work and eight was just about the limit of Kalvin’s current capabilities, but longer reach and weight class enabled him to mow through the remaining lesser undead. Their predictable attack pattern of leaping at the nearest enemy, claws outstretched and mouth open, just lead to Kalvin swatting them out of the air with snap kicks and straight jabs. He never gave the small monsters a chance to inflict damage.

At the end of the battle, Kalvin stood, his body folded at the waist as his chest heaved and he gasped for air. Even with the constant stream of energy revitalizing him, this was the most exercise he’d had in ages. When his breathing finally calmed down and it felt like his lungs weren’t at risk of leaping out of his chest, Kalvin sank to the ground, enshrouding himself in the soothing energy. 

He spent the next few hours experimenting, trying to hold on to the feelings of death and decay he’d experienced, keeping them in the back of his mind as he attempted to manipulate and guide the surrounding energy. It was a long process. The energy seemed happy to be pulled towards him or into his body, but when he tried to propel the energy outwards or push it into certain shapes, it rebelled.

It also didn’t help that every thirty minutes or so, increasing amounts of monsters surged into the graveyard. At first it was just an increase of undead goblins and the occasional spiked-tongue creature, but when more than one of the long-limbed grotesque things appeared, Kalvin struggled to deal with them, wasting more of his precious time between attacks.

It wasn’t long before the constant repetition wore him down. He dodged a strike from a pointed tongue only to feel a claw dig into his left thigh. His concentration faded as pain spiked through his nerves and he missed the second creature's attack as its barbed tongue twisted and struck at his back, piercing right into his heart and pulling him into darkness once more.

Chapter 16

Kalvin erupted from his shallow grave, throwing dirt and debris everywhere as he came back to life once more. He grumbled while wiping the grave dirt from his face and mouth. His left side throbbed in agony once more without the energy to supplement him. It took only a few moments to suppress the pain to a tolerable level this time before he staggered to the fence, using the iron bars for support. He then hobbled around the outskirts of the graveyard, making it just in time for a speech from his favorite person.

Thames had arrived at the entrance before anyone this time. He was currently perched precariously atop a tombstone, delicately balancing as he gave an impassioned speech to the confused survivors.

“Calm down and listen to me! We are inside a Tower! Most likely a Black Tower! I’m sure all of you are aware of how dangerous such a place is, but I want to reassure each of you that if we work together, we can make it out of here! My name is Thames and I’ve previously received special Climber training in case of such an event. If you’ll just give me some of your time, I would like to teach each of you a few tips to help you survive your first trip into a Tower.”

Thames’s words made sense and almost tempted Kalvin to work with the group, despite Kalvin knowing they were all lies, Thames hadn’t known anything about the Tower of Sheol during his first few lives. The special training Thames had received was just information he’d gleaned from Izanami. The eloquently spoken words didn’t sway everyone though as several disgruntled teenagers and one older woman pushed through the crowd and shouted at Thames.

“What the fuck are you talking about, kid? Tower? Are you on drugs?” The elderly woman asked as she tapped at an unresponsive phone.

“Everybody knows that Towers are where Artifacts and Relics come from. You’re just trying to slow us down and keep us here so you or your friends out there with the red-eyes can get them first!” One of the bright red-haired teens shouted.

“Please! I’m trying to help you. Why won’t you listen to me?”

The trio of teens in patched jackets with partially shaved-heads ignored Thames’ plea and stomped past him, with the elderly woman only a few steps behind. Thames watched them go as his lips pulled downwards and his expression changed to a scowl. It took less than a minute for the screams to start as the old woman, who had refused to accept her surroundings and situation as supernatural, was torn to shreds by the red-eyed creatures in the mist.

Audible gasps rang through the crowd of people around Thames then, and the man still perched upon a tombstone chose this moment to manifest his sword by putting on his impressive golden light show. That motion sealed the crowd's faith in the blonde man as they crowded around the charlatan with questions about the Tower and what they should do.

“Please, Please! One at a time, line up and I’ll teach you how to access your new Climber abilities.”

Kalvin watched as each person, most of them awed by Thames’ display of magic, lined up and was introduced to their Status one at a time by the man, even telling him about their ability. The mausoleum appeared then, wiping away the fog inside the graveyard, and releasing Izanami, yet Thames’ tight control over the crowd kept them in line and enabled him to catalog their abilities. With nothing new to observe, Kalvin shambled away from the entrance and towards the floating bride.

Izanami turned to acknowledge Kalvin as he approached, bowing her head slightly. “Greetings, my name is Izanami. Let me be the first to congratulate you on becoming a Climber.”

Kalvin's shambling motions to a halt just in front of Izanami. His aching mind and body slowly working to come up with the questions he’d been grappling with just moments before when his body was whole and his mind was working properly.

“I-Izanami, if someone, theoretically, had no ability, what would be the best way for them to survive this level of the Tower?” Kalvin asked after some frantic thinking.

“If someone had no ability? I’d say the simplest way for that person to survive was to depend on others,” Izanami answered promptly.

“And… if they had no one to depend on?”

“Hmmm, no abilities and alone in the Tower? Their best chance in the short term would be to get lucky and find a powerful piece of equipment.”

Kalvin frowned, his brows furrowing as he scanned the empty graveyard before turning back to Izanami., “And if they had no way to get equipment?”

“Accumulating enough monster cores to level up.”

Izanami’s answer made Kalvin pause and blink, his frown fading as confusion washed over him.

“Monster cores?”

“The concentrated energy of a monster, its heart in essence. Upon a Tower monster’s defeat, a Climber can harvest the monster’s core. Consuming enough monster cores will level up a Climber.”

Kalvin’s lips pursed as he digested the information. “What does leveling up have to do with getting stronger?”

“Everything. The higher level a Climber is, the more options their Status will provide them.”

Kalvin heard it then, the sign that his time was running short; the screams of the survivors and the shrieks of the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls as the battle began. Quickly, he leaned forward and asked Izanami, “How exactly do I get these monster cores?”

Her gleeful answer made Kalvin shudder and strongly contemplate returning to the slow process of manipulating the gray energy of death. Either way, he needed to wait for the battle to be over, so Kalvin stoically turned around and watched Thames’ newest attempt at escaping this hellish cycle.

Chapter 17

It was over in less than ten minutes, surprisingly Thames had fallen in the third wave of monsters. He’d once again overextended and lodged his sword in a ghoul’s body. Instead of backing up and leaving the sword, he’d spent precious seconds trying to pry it free from the corpse impaled upon it. Thames’ obsession with the sword had cost him, and several other survivors, their lives as the small monsters fell upon them in a vicious frenzy.

The final two survivors standing were familiar to Kalvin, the thin teenager Sorren with his bolts of frost, and Abigail, who had surprisingly fought only with her fists instead of some mix of magic and melee like the others. Kalvin glanced at Thames once more, making sure the man was truly out of this life and onto the next, before he began walking towards the struggling pair.

He hadn’t been idle while the fights had been going on. His focus had been less on the battlefield and more on reminiscing about his experiences with death, letting the emotions those memories evoked wash over him again and again as he called towards the necrotic energy gathering on the battlefield. The results of his meditation showed now, as he transitioned from walking to running without pain. His hospital gown flowed around him as his feet ate up the earth and brought him face to face with the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls.

Kalvin’s attack began with his skeletal left fist striking the throat of a shrieking monster as it leapt at Abigail. His empowered body sent the creature flying back until it hit the iron fence of the graveyard, where it collapsed to the ground. Kalvin then spun around, pivoting on his left foot and twisting at the waist. He swept around and lashed out with a high back kick, driving his foot into the face of a monster that attacked a distracted Sorren. With the two sneak attacks dealt with, the pair of tired survivors could withdraw from the entrance, staggering back and gasping for breath. Kalvin pushed forward into the trio of remaining undead.

The fight for Kalvin was brutal and quick. His right fist drove into the temple of one monster and toppled it as it tried to attack the retreating pair. He then used that impact to reverse his momentum and drive his elbow down onto the top of another monster’s skull. The final ghoul was dealt with by what would have been a leg sweep on a human as Kalvin dropped his weight and spun, his leg striking the side of the goblin’s knees shearing through both. This knocked it to the ground before Kalvin swung his leg up and stomped the heel of his foot through the shrieking undead thing’s throat, silencing it.

As the dust settled and his adrenaline faded, Kalvin froze, his thoughts and the current situation flooding in all at once. Two survivors were still alive. Neither of them were Thames, so they probably wouldn’t remember him, but they could still complicated things. It also made Kalvin supremely aware of the fact that he was still just in a thin hospital gown. Slowly, he turned to face the other survivors, his fists tightly clenched as he resisted the urge to adjust the gown.

“Dude, that was AWESOME! Was that like Muay Thai or something? The way you were like bam, wham, pow, and the thing with the elbow strike that was incredible!” Sorren said rapidly, his eyes growing wide as he surveyed the battlefield behind Kalvin.

Abigail’s response was more measured. Her soft eyes focused on Kalvin and his body with a scrutinizing look before she glanced down towards the dead survivors.

Kalvin, unsure of what to do or what to say to either of them, froze. His only thought was that at least no one had called him Patient Zed-667 or Zombie. When it became apparent to the other two that Kalvin would not say anything, Sorren stepped closer, “Sooo is your ability, like martial arts related? Or were you a badass before coming here? Oh, is that how you were injured?”

Kalvin shook his head in response, then, upon realizing that explained nothing, said, “No. My ability just lets me move without issue. For now.”

“Oh. Ohhhhhh,” Sorren said as his head tilted and he took in the extent of the necrosis that had eaten away at Kalvin’s left side. “Are you… okay? Like do you need to lie down? Or need some water? When my mana recharges, I can fight off a few monsters in the next wave if you need to rest.”

“Uh…” Kalvin glanced down at his withered body. The dark swirling energy was currently streaming from the corpses around him and pouring into his left side, unknown and unseen by the others. “I’ll be fine, thank you. Could you help me with something else?”

“Yeah! For sure! You totally saved our bacon. What can I do?”

Kalvin blinked in response, unsure of how to deal with someone so overwhelmingly optimistic. How can he just agree so readily? What if I asked him to put his life at risk or do something terrible? Abigail’s clear hesitation and skepticism about Kalvin’s sudden appearance made a lot more sense than the blindly trusting reaction of Sorren, but still Kalvin needed the help.

“Izanami, the floating woman who came out of the mausoleum earlier,” Kalvin quickly added an explanation as he remembered no one else had interacted with her this life, “said that the monster’s have cores inside of them, where their hearts should be, and if we consume those, we can level up.”

“So you’d like us to help you dig out the cores before the next wave? Sure!” Sorren replied before kneeling at a nearby monster corpse, looking down at it and then back up at Kalvin. “So uh, how do I get it out of them?”

Kalvin frowned at the question and stepped closer, looming over the body of the ghoul and grimacing as the reality of the situation sunk in. 

“I think we are going to have to tear open its chest and rip it out.”

Chapter 18

Sorren didn’t exactly look thrilled at that revelation, and to be honest, Kalvin wasn’t happy about it either. It was one thing to punch or kick a monster, but the idea of having to rip open that same monster’s chest with your bare hands and go rifling through its insides, was infinitely more revolting.

Abigail made a disapproving noise as the pair stood over the corpse. She sauntered past them towards the gates of the graveyard. Just as Kalvin’s mind worked to decode what he’d possibly done to offend the woman, she stopped and bent to retrieve an item before turning back to the pair, Thames’s short sword in hand.

“It’s going to take way too long to open them up with your hands. Sorren lay the body over here. I’ll cut it open and crack open the ribs, and uh — I didn’t get your name?” Abigail ordered as she gestured towards the ground beside her and then fixed Kalvin with a questioning look.

“Kalvin,” he supplied numbly, while staring at the sword in Abigail’s hands and wondering why he’d never thought to use it in the previous fights.

“Alright, Kalvin. When I pop them open, you can fish out the cores and clean them down. If those cores are the key to getting stronger and getting out of here, I propose we divide them in four. Sorren gets one part, I get one part, and Kalvin gets two parts.” 

Sorren and Kalvin exchanged looks as Abigail finished speaking, both of them wearing matching expressions of bafflement at her sudden change in demeanor. Sorren broke away first, reaching down to scoop up one ghoul and carrying it towards Abigail. Kalvin followed in Sorren’s wake, watching him dump the body onto the ground before Abigail.

Abigail crouched down and gripped the undead’s chest with her left hand, holding it in place as she hacked into the monster with the short sword. After only two heavy chops, something cracked and she slid the blade under the exposed flesh and levered it up, popping open the monster’s ribcage and almost causing Kalvin’s stomach to revolt at the sight.

Abigail stood up and stepped back, wiping the blade clean as she took in the queasy, green looks on both Sorren and Kalvin’s faces as they gawked down at the monster.

“What? Neither of you strong men ever butchered your own dinner or spatchcocked a chicken?” She asked with a note of pride as she stepped away from the body and moved onto the next.

“I don’t think that’s quite the same thing,” Sorren replied with a laugh as he left to grab another body, leaving Kalvin staring down at the popped open chest of a ghoul.

With a low groan, Kalvin turned, positioning himself so that the back of his hospital gown wasn’t facing the other two as he knelt over the corpse and shoved his hand into the monster’s chest. It was a new low in his life. Kalvin’s fingers quickly worked through the chest cavity latching onto something small and hard before immediately ripping it free of the monster.

What he found in his hand once he wiped off the guts and grime was a small carnelian, the size of peppermint candy, or Werther’s original. Kalvin winced at the memory of his grandparents that the mental mention of small caramel candy had evoked. Instead of dwelling further on the past, Kalvin centered himself, focusing holding onto the memories of decay and the feelings of death, keeping them in the back of his mind. He threw himself into the rhythm of plucking the small gems from the line of opened bodies Abigail was producing.

By the time Sorren called for a stop and plopped down beside Kalvin, a small stack of monster cores lay on the ground. After dividing them, Kalvin was left with twelve small gems and was treated to several puzzled looks by the others.

“So, now what? How do these rocks help us level up?” Abigail asked with a note of skepticism in her voice.

Kalvin picked up a monster core, bringing it up to eye level before giving Abigail the answer he was sure no one wanted to hear. 

“We consume them.”

“You mean like… eat them!?” Abigail replied in shock.

“That’s metal AF,” Sorren murmured in awe.

Kalvin, for his part, shoved the core into his mouth and immediately swallowed, trying to keep the taste of blood and decay to a minimum, while not thinking about where the core had just been. Sorren and Abigail stared at him with wide eyes, waiting to see if anything happened, or maybe just to see if he finally threw up in disgust. Kalvin felt something as the gem hit his stomach. It wasn’t disgust though; it was a cooling sensation, like his body had suddenly been submerged into a lake’s cooling water on a hot summer day.

There was only one way to truly know if the small gem had an effect though, so Kalvin murmured the magic words as he thought about the Tower, “Status.”

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 25%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

“It worked,” Kalvin said as he eyed the 25% where it had previously said 0%.

Quickly, he shoveled three more of the small gems into his mouth, trying not to think about where they came from and instead focusing on the potential benefits, getting the eff out of here. It wasn’t long until one after another the cores hit his stomach and his Status screen ticked up, 50%, 75%, then finally ticking up 100%, before the entire Status screen was covered in a silver sheen and a panel of text emerged.

Congratulations on Leveling up!

Please select your upgrade:

Health

Mana

Active

Passive

Random

Chapter 19

Kalvin let the words float in the air, staring at each of them as he tried to consider their meanings.

Sorren was the first to break the short stint of silence that followed. “What happened?”

“I leveled up, and it wants me to select an upgrade. The choices are, Health, Mana, Passive, Active, or Random,” Kalvin answered as his dark eyes flitted from upgrade to upgrade on the screen.

“Pick Random! I bet it’ll give you some super rare bonus!” Sorren said excitedly.

Kalvin turned away from the overeager Sorren, glancing towards Abigail while hoping her insight would be more insightful and measured. Upon seeing Kalvin’s hopeful gaze, Abigail tilted her head to the side and considered, before turning around and gesturing towards the mausoleum.

“Why don’t you ask the woman in the wedding dress? You said she is the one who told you about the cores in the first place, right?”

Kalvin nodded in reply and stood, leaving his pile of cores on the ground behind him, while wishing not for the first time that hospital gowns came with pockets. Together the trio of survivors walked to the mausoleum. Sorren’s fidgeting and Abigail’s thin-pressed lips gave away their nervousness as they approached the clearly dead bride.

“Izanami, could you explain what the upgrade choices I’m seeing on my Status screen mean?” Kalvin asked.

“Certainly, I’m happy to assist Climbers in matters concerning the Tower or their Status. If you would list the choices, I’ll do my best to explain each of them in simple terms,” Izanami replied coolly.

Kalvin ignored Izanami’s stinging reply and listed the five options quickly, knowing that the next wave of monsters was imminent. Izanami for her part nodded once Kalvin finished and explained “Health would increase the Health Attribute listed on your Status screen, which would extend your natural lifespan and require your enemies to inflict more damage to you before you reach the point of no return and die. Do you have any questions?”

A quick glance at the others, showed an eager Sorren, who clearly had a million questions he wanted to ask, and an intrigued Abigail. Kalvin’s only reply though was to shake his head and remain in silence, intent on listening to Izanami’s information and acutely aware of how little time they had.

“Very well, next up is Mana. The simplest way to explain it to Earthlings is that it’s a rechargeable, internal battery for active Abilities and Equipment that require mana. There are some other minor benefits, but none of that applies to your current situation. Are you unclear about anything I just said Climbers?”

Kalvin shook his head once more and gestured for Izanami to continue. He wasn’t particularly interested in hearing about either Health or Mana, especially considering their low values on his Status screen.

“On to Passive then, Passive refers to Passive Abilities that only need to be on and off once. When turned on the text will often glow to signify they’ve been enabled, and they offer various ways to interact with the world, slightly improve one’s self, or enhance other Abilities over a longer term, for a small cost, or sometimes, none. Do you need clarification about anything I just said or would you prefer if I continued on to Active and Random?” Izanami inquired.

“Please explain Active and then Random,” Kalvin said quickly as he glanced back towards the entrance.

“Active are powerful, short term Abilities that have a high resource cost for large bursts of power. Rapid Movement, Teleportation, Magical Attacks, and Healing Spells are all considered Active Abilities that you activate to use for a short period of time, often instantly. Random, simply put, is leaving the decision of your upgrade to the fates. There is a small chance you’ll receive nothing, a large change you’ll receive one of the four other upgrades, and a minuscule chance you’ll receive a bonus upgrade.”

Just as Izanami finished speaking, the first of the next wave stepped out of the fog and through the entrance of the graveyard. Kalvin gave the others a tired smile, before bowing slightly to Izanami. “Thank you for the information. I’m sure I’ll have more questions in the future. I think we are about to be preoccupied, however.”

Sorren and Abigail joined him on the walk back to the entrance, Kalvin’s mind whirring as he processed Izanami’s words. Health and Mana, as he’d guessed, would do next to nothing for him currently, since he had no way to spend mana, and upon depletion of his Health he would respawn here. The Passive category was certainly a different story though. His Necrotic Energy Manipulation definitely fitted into that category, while Sorren’s bolts of frost fit into the Active category. Regardless of his thoughts, there was really only one question that mattered.

Kalvin lifted his arms and prepared to engage the next wave of the unending undead. “Will I get to keep it when I die?”

Chapter 20

Morbid thoughts swirled through Kalvin's mind as he fought the ghouls. The distraction would have been fine if he had been alone like normal, but he had allies this time. He knew what his lapse in concentration had cost him when Abigail let out a high-pitched scream of pain and his head swiveled towards the sound.

Abigail's scream turned into a whimper as Kalvin watched the serrated tongue of the stealthier, long-limbed creature rip free of her throat and send her body tumbling to the ground. 

Behind Kalvin, Sorren let out a whispered, “Fuck” as he witnessed Abigail's death.

“NO!” Sorren let out an impotent scream of rage then as he turned to face the tall, pale creature and fired a blast of frost into its chest. 

Sorren was so used to his Frost bolts decimating the lesser ghouls that he was unprepared for this new creature's retaliation. It took the magical frost on its sternum, the ice spreading over the monster's pale chest and knocking it back a step, but that was it. The moment it recovered, the creature used its long legs and arms to shove off the ground and spring towards a shocked Sorren.

Luckily for Sorren, Kalvin was there. He could not save Abigail, too lost in his thoughts for the future, but as the monster lunged towards Sorren, Kalvin moved. He lifted his knee and drove it into the final lesser ghoul before twisting to intercept the monster. His fist slammed into its ribcage with a sickening crunch, halting its attempt to bypass him and reach Sorren.

It twisted towards Kalvin and let out a deafening howl. It’s sharp tongue springing out of its gaping mouth and stabbing towards his chest in the next moment. The combination of the howl that caused his skull to rattle and the sudden attack would have been deadly, if Kalvin hadn't dealt with the tongue attacks several times now.

His left hand flicked down, sweeping across his chest and catching the sharp-edged tongue with his bony fingers. His cold, skeletal hand wrapped around the serrated appendage and squeezed. Dull pain from deadened nerves shot up his left arm as the edges bit into his neurotic flesh, but it was nothing compared to the agony he had lived with for years now.

A low, rumbling growl escaped Kalvin then, as he glimpsed Abigail's fallen body behind the creature and rage temporarily took over. Kalvin watched from the back of his mind as instinct took over, his left hand pulled on the tongue, dragging the creature forward as his left leg swept up. His rage and anger solidified then into a hate-filled fantasy of taking vengeance for Abigail, of ripping the creature in half, and the swirling gray energy around him responded.

The gray vapors coalesced around his left leg, wrapping around the thin limb just before it made contact with the creature's chest. Through his clouded, rage-filled eyes, Kalvin watched as his kick sheared through the sternum and ribcage of the monster, cleanly cutting it in half without even a shred of resistance.

Weakness overwhelmed Kalvin then, the gray energy drifting away from his body and rapidly returning it to its pre-Tower state. His left leg came crashing down, his hand spasming and dropping the dead monster's tongue. All the strength and power that he had built up over the last few hours fled as the energy poured out of him. Kalvin tried to force his mind back to the ideal state, towards that mix of warm decay and cold pain, but it was too late. The ground rose to meet him as he toppled over and true darkness crawled over his sight.

The last thing Kalvin saw before slipping into unconsciousness was a panicked, shocked Sorren turning to fight the remaining undead. Over a dozen manic Lesser Ravenous Ghouls swarmed out of the mists and into the graveyard charging towards the solitary and unprepared, young man.

Chapter 21

Pain, darkness, and the weight of the thin layer of dirt pressing down on him woke Kalvin. He sat up slowly, while he struggled to tune out the screams around him as he brushed away the dirt from his face. After a few moments, when the pain of his left side receded, Kalvin slowly pulled himself out of the shallow grave.

His very bones were weary, and each movement brought a deep soreness. His fingers dug into the side of the grave, while his eyes scanned the mist shrouded graveyard. He could only watch the other survivors swarm towards the entrance. Kalvin let go of the grave then, allowing himself to fall back onto the soft earth and just laid there as he thought about his most recent life.

He’d failed Abigail, and watched her die in front of him. He’d been too slow, even with his new power, to save her. It was the first time he’d actually truly spoken with someone besides Izanami in… forever. He’d fought beside someone, had another human to depend on, and learn with. That single life had given him new insight and new ways of surviving. Using Thames’s sword once he perished had been brilliant, and enabled them to harvest the cores much faster.

“The cores!” Kalvin exclaimed as he realized he had yet to check if finally something besides his memory would carry over into the next life.

It only took a quickly murmured “Status” while focusing on thoughts of the Tower, to bring up his Status screen and confirm whether he had a new way to gain permanent power.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 0%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

It hadn’t carried over into this life. Kalvin glowered at the screen. What good are powers I can’t keep? Worse, the longer he thought about leveling up, the more he realized how much he had fucked up in the last life. I could have selected an upgrade. If I had gotten a firebolt, I could have saved Abigail from a distance, and burned that thing to a crisp. Any kind of ranged attack would have been perfect. If I had a frostbolt I could have slowed it enough to reach her. Maybe a lightning bolt would have stunned it.

Kalvin’s teeth ground together as his jaw worked back and forth. His fingers curled into fists as he replayed the last life through his mind. I could have done better, and I will do better in the future. I’ll use the sword to harvest cores and power up as fast as possible. Even if I die, I can just try new Abilities. I can do that again and again till no one has to die.

He laid there in his grave, planning and plotting as he heard the sounds of fighting. The screams of pain, and the horrible shrieks of the starving undead haunted him. Only when the noises finally subsided and only the occasional sickening crunch of bone, or the wet, squelching sound of flesh being torn out of a body remained, did Kalvin finally emerge from his grave.

The entrance of the graveyard was swarming with Necrotic energy. Whatever Thames had attempted in this life, it clearly had some positive effect. Nearly fifty of the monsters lay dead, surrounded by just under thirty survivors. Only five Lesser Ravenous Ghouls were left from the last wave, greedily crunching away at their meals, unaware of Kalvin’s slow, shambling approach.

Kalvin’s eyes were half-closed, only dimly registering the enemies before him as he focused on dredging up old memories of death, of moments of the macabre. The pain that had been wracking his body ceased almost instantly then as the gray, misty energy only he could see streaked away from the field of corpses and rushed into his body.

Compared to his previous attempts where it had taken minutes or even hours to get the energy to respond, this time, it took Kalvin only seconds to manipulate the energy. As the sickly, gray energy swept over his body, fatigue fled from his shoulders and his eyes snapped open.

Feeling alive once more, Kalvin scanned his surroundings. He took advantage of the momentary lull that had settled upon the cemetery as the monsters devoured their prey. It didn’t take him long to find what he was looking for. The shining, metallic short sword was currently sticking out of a ghoul, while its owner, Thames, died only a foot away from it. 

Kalvin streaked forward, rushing through the crowd of undead to reach the sword. The ghouls lifted their heads as he approached, each of them using the same jagged, jerky motions as their hungry red eyes followed him. It would have been too much to ask for if he could just get the sword unbothered. Instead the nearest pair of zombie goblins leapt at him, discarding their previous meals for a fresh dessert.

Kalvin’s left knee lifted and drove into the skull of the left creature before he threw himself forward, sliding beneath the other monster’s attack. He hit the ground with his right shoulder and rolled forward. His right hand wrapping around the sword’s hilt and ripping it free from the dead monster’s body to ward off the final four fiends.

Or at least, he tried to.

Chapter 22

Where Kalvin’s palm had made contact with the hilt of the sword, a sudden spike of fiery agony shot into him. It felt like liquid fire had been injected into his veins. He stumbled back, dropping the sword on the ground as three of the undead creatures took advantage of his momentary vulnerability to land on him. Their sharp claws and teeth dug into his chest, shredding the hospital gown and scoring deep bloody gashes on the pale flesh beneath.

He suppressed a roar of pain. The claws were nothing compared to the inferno of the sword, but still he would not let their attack go unpunished. His skeletal left hand curled into a fist and struck away one ghoul clinging to him. 

The creature died instantly from the empowered strike, a misty, gray energy erupting from the body to mark it as a corpse. Kalvin froze then, ignoring the monsters tearing through his flesh and the still-burning nerves in his right arm as he watched the energy coalesce and gravitate towards him. It made him understand what had just happened. He had been subjected to the worst possible pain in any of his lives so far, and in the back of his mind, he had clung to those old macabre memories.

Kalvin eyed the surrounding energy. Grasping at it with his left fingers, he willed it to wrap around his bony fingertips, forming into dark claws before he swept them across the two small ghouls still clinging to his chest. The mist-formed claws sliced through the small monster's arms like a hot knife through butter, sending the hungry fiends tumbling to the ground.

A quick stomp with his right heel put the two fallen fiends out of their misery. The last pair of ghouls that had finally joined the fray didn't fare much better as Kalvin at this point had become quite used to dispatching the devious, little menaces.

When the fight finished, Kalvin stood alone, victorious once more, but this time at a cost. Blood trickled down from where the monsters had torn into his chest. The thin hospital gown hanging off of him had been shredded till it was only a few strips of cloth. Worse, was the weakness he felt slowly seeping into his body. 

He glanced down at the source of the weakness creeping through him, and noted that it was the claws he had manifested from the Necrotic energy. They shimmered in the dim evening light, and looked like a long sharp hook extended from each finger. As he wiggled his fingers, he watched the energy ripple and pulse. He felt how the deliberate movements of the energy caused his mind to strain and the power inside of him to drain further.

Kalvin tested swiping the claws through the air for a few seconds. He practiced with his new weapon before he let his concentration slip just enough to allow the claws to dissipate and the gray mists to once more enter his now, energy-starved body.

A low groan escaped Kalvin's lips then as the realization of what he should do next truly sunk into his mind. He knelt by the closest monster corpse and began the gruesome process of prying open their chest with his bare hands so he could harvest monster cores and level up.

It took longer than he would care to admit to get four cores. Once he had wiped them clean and successfully blacked out the past few minutes, Kalvin shoved the cores into his mouth and watched his Status screen tick up.

25%

50%

75%

100%

Congratulations on Leveling up!

Please select your upgrade:

Health

Mana

Active

Passive

Random

Kalvin already knew precisely what he wanted to try first and didn’t hesitate to press it. Upon pressing Active the screen floating before him flashed and changed to display his new Active Ability and an unforeseen problem.

Dreadbolt (Common): Fire a projectile of twisted, malevolent energy to inflict minor damage to a creature. Each projectile has a slight chance to inflict a Frightened Condition on living creatures struck by Dreadbolt.

Cost: 5 mana

Okay, so maybe there were two problems. Problem one was that Kalvin felt pretty sure the swarms of undead attacking the graveyard and whatever else was lurking out in the fog did not qualify as a living creature. Problem two was that at a cost of 5 mana, he could afford to activate his shiny new ability at a total of zero times.

Kalvin sighed in frustration. His dreams of quick and easy power having been almost immediately crushed beneath the reality of his abysmal starting numbers. He knew what he had to do next. He’d recharged enough Necrotic energy to allow himself the luxury of manifesting a single, gray claw over his index finger so he could start harvesting more cores in order to try Leveling up again.

Chapter 23

Five minutes and a worrying six cores later, the screen Kalvin wanted to see finally triggered.

Congratulations on Leveling up!

Please select your upgrade:

Health

Mana

Active

Passive

Random

Selecting the Mana upgrade netted Kalvin two additional Mana on his status screen, leaving his Mana value at a grand total of Three. Ten minutes and nine cores later, he triggered the Level up screen once more and advanced to five Mana. A new problem presented itself then. There was nothing left to practice shooting in the cemetery.

Knowing that he’d soon have a new round of guests, Kalvin sorted the monster’s bodies. Stacking those that had been harvested to the left, he cleared the battlefield of potential trip hazards and the fallen survivors. Then he carefully and slowly dragged them back towards the mausoleum. Kalvin felt more than a little unsure of what to do with their corpses, but didn’t want to just ignore them.

The timing was perfect. He'd just finished paying his respects to the deceased and stacking the already harvested bodies when the next wave of undead monsters swarmed into the graveyard. 

A swift count revealed the number to be lacking for how long this life had been going… Kalvin’s gaze flicked back and forth trying to pierce the mist till he spotted what he was looking for. One of the long-limbed freakish monsters crawled over the iron bars of the fence to his left in an attempt to sneak up on its prey. Without pausing, Kalvin opened his Abilities screen and pressed his new active power with excitement. Almost immediately, a bolt of dark energy shot out of his right hand that was touching the screen before and shot off into the air. It was not even remotely close to where the monster was descending the fence.

“Oh, fuck,” Kalvin murmured as he realized that he’d need to aim the thing.

His inability to use his new Active Ability aside, Kalvin jogged forward and prepared to fight the sharp-tongued monster first. It leapt off the fence at his approach, throwing its entire body at him with its claws extended. He would have been caught off guard if he hadn’t been intimately familiar with this pattern.

When it was within four feet of him, its tongue exploded out of his mouth, aiming directly towards his throat, intent on spearing it. That was exactly what he’d expected, though, as his skeletal hand swept up and caught the slimy, sharp appendage. He sharply tugged on the tongue, forcing the creature off balance and towards his mist-wreathed leg that rose and swept through the monster’s mid-section, killing it almost instantly as its two halves hit the ground.

It only took a few moments to dispatch the other undead monsters. Kalvin was the only standing person in the graveyard, if you didn’t count the floating bride who waited outside the mausoleum as he dragged the bisected monster behind him.

“Excuse me. Could you tell me what kind of monster this is and if it has any weaknesses?” He asked Izanami respectfully.

“Certainly! First let me be the first to welcome you to the Tower of Sheol and congratulate you on becoming a Climber. My name is Izanami and I’m happy to answer any of your Tower-related questions,” Izanami answered in the perfectly smooth, silky voice of someone who has done customer service or retail for far too long.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Izanami. My name is Kalvin, now… Could you tell me about this monster?” Kalvin repeated his question as he suppressed his building annoyance at hearing Izanami’s perpetual greeting for the umpteenth time.

“Of course. That particular torso you are holding up belongs to a Diegheist, commonly referred to as a Bloodsucker Thrall.”

“I see. Is there any easier way to kill them than cutting them in half or pummeling them till they are a pile of mush? Oh! And do they have monster cores?”

Izanami’s veil swayed back and forth in the breeze for a moment as Kalvin could have sworn he heard soft laughter come from the floating bride. When the swaying veil and silence settled over the cemetery once more, she graced Kalvin with a rather unexpected answer.

“The easiest way to kill a Diegheist is by ripping out its tongue at the root. Just pull until a large mound of pink and green flesh is torn out of their skull with the tongue, and yes they have cores. Do you have any other questions for me, Climber Kalvin?”

Kalvin did not have any other questions as he stood there gaping at Izanami, who had calmly described one of the most violent, disgusting things he’d heard since coming here. Still, as he looked down to the half of a Diegheist body on the ground before him. It wasn’t worse than what he was about to do next.

Almost as if he was wishing for more attackers, Kalvin glanced around the empty graveyard slowly, his stomach revolting as he tried to keep his thoughts away from what came next. When he couldn’t spot any approaching enemies, he knelt once more unto the bloody battlefield and began the gruesome process of harvesting the monster cores.

Chapter 24

Kalvin performed the grotesque process again and again until he had a small mound of glittering carnelian cores and he could hear the rapid footfalls of the next wave of undead. The extra ghoul in this group made no difference to the outcome as Kalvin soon tossed their bodies onto the stack and sat down to begin the upgrade process.

He spent 15 cores, then 20, then 30, to upgrade three more times and bring his total Mana up to 11 before using the final 43 ghoul cores and 1 of the Diegheist cores to level up a final time. When the menu popped up, he crossed his bony fingers and pressed the Active button, hoping for something… a little more useful.

Boneshaping (Unique): Use Mana to alter the size, density, and shape of bones.

Cost: Varies

His new ability sounded vaguely useful, except for the part about costing mana. With both abilities costing mana to activate, Kalvin tried the one he knew had combat applications, Dreadbolt. Positioning himself about 20 feet away from a tombstone, Kalvin opened his Ability screen and tried activating the power once more. His right index finger pressed against the floating text and a ball of dark, writhing energy emerged from the screen. It shot forward and flew over the tombstone he’d been aiming at, missing it by well over three feet.

Kalvin grimaced at the sight. Someone… had done better. His brows furrowed as a dim memory of Thames teaching an unknown young man how to aim his bolts of frost surfaced in his mind. Kalvin watched the memory, uncertain if this was a life he’d already died in, or perhaps a life that was yet to happen, until finally an aching pain in his skull forced his mind off the memory and back to reality.

His hands massaged his temples slowly, trying to get the throbbing pressure to subside as he tried to remember how that unknown young man had shot his bolts of frost with such precision. Eventually, a thought clicked into place. The motion of the young man’s finger pressing to where his screen must have been lined up nearly perfectly with the tombstone he’d been targeting. 

Summoning his screen once again, Kalvin shifted his head, angling his eyes slightly down so that he was looking directly at the tombstone and while completely ignoring the screen. He’d noticed it before but hadn’t realized its significance then. The screen followed his gaze, always staying directly in the center of his vision. When a perfect line could be drawn from his eyes, to the line of text reading Dreadbolt, and then to the tombstone beyond, Kalvin reached out and tapped the ability.

The writhing ball of black mist immediately burst out of the screen and streaked across the twenty feet in less than a second before impacting the tombstone with a ‘thud’. Satisfied he’d finally hit something, but completely out of Mana, Kalvin walked forward to inspect the target. The dark granite tombstone was now covered in a spiderweb of cracks demonstrating just how much force the blast of energy had. 

Satisfied with the experiment and unable to practice further, Kalvin stalked back to the entrance and stared out into the mists beyond. He didn’t think the answer to escaping this floor of the Tower was just to stay here and defeat the endless waves of undead. Something had to be out there in the mists. The question he asked himself, though, was, “Am I strong enough to survive out there?”

Unknown horrors lurked out in the mists, plus the lack of visibility would make fighting there a nightmare. Kalvin reclined against the iron bars of the graveyard, waiting for his next opponents while pondering that same question and what exactly he could do to prepare for those lurking, unknown threats.

Two monster waves later Kalvin had concluded that it didn’t matter. The amount of cores he needed to level up was only going to continue increasing. His Mana regenerated at such a slow rate that he’d only been able to fire two more practice Dreadbolts during the entire time he’d been waiting. At least in the worst-case scenario, even if he died out there, he could just respawn back in the graveyard and try again.

There was one thing left to try before he stepped into the mists though. Once he’d harvested the cores from the last wave and prepared to step out, Kalvin turned back to the mausoleum with its floating, ever-watching occupant to ask a final pressing question.

“Izanami, what am I looking for?”

“I’m not sure I understand the question Climber Kalvin,” Izanami replied softly.

“To escape this place, to Climb the Tower, what am I looking for? A staircase? A ladder?”

“Ah, I have heard of such Tower floors before where one needs to find a stairway up or pedestal that teleports one to the next floor. This level has no such mechanism. Instead it’s much simpler. If you are ready to advance to the next level, all you have to do is find a Bloodstone door and open it, once you've stepped through you'll be transported to where you need to be,” Izanami answered sagely.

“Bloodstone?” Kalvin asked, his puzzled tone and expression conveying his confusion plainly.

Izanami paused. Her chest rose and fell for a moment, despite clearly not needing to breathe . She extended one claw and pointed towards the sky. Kalvin’s gaze followed the deadly fingertip as it pierced the heavens. Around and before it, the perpetual fog parted, forming a perfect cylinder of clear skies and revealing a deep crimson moon that hung far above in the night sky.

Chapter 25

The round, crimson orb lurked far above Kalvin and for just a moment, he questioned if he was actually inside a Tower. An unsettling feeling washed over him then. The deaths, the pain, the lack of companions, all the questions, everything before had felt… unreal. Like he’d been tossed into another experiment. But as he gazed up at the far too large blood moon that hung far too low in the night sky, Kalvin’s spine tingled. It felt like cold, invisible fingers were slithering down the back of his neck. It was an instinctual alarm to the fact that he was being watched, had been being watched, by something ominous and inhuman.

A shudder ran through his body, shattering his concentration and causing weakness to infiltrate him once more as the Necrotic energy leaked out of him. His gaze remained on the blood moon even then. Only when the shrieks and howls of the next monster wave reached his ears, did he force his gaze from the desolate sky.

Kalvin started the next wave weakened, his mind still reeling, unable to shake the image of a blood moon floating over him. The first two Diegheist were dispatched quickly, but each ghoul that came after sapped his strength more and more. He collapsed in a heap over the final monster. His left side was no longer functional, having returned to being literal dead weight. His right hand was wrapped around the neck of the small monster, squeezing down as it clawed and bit at his flesh until finally he heard and felt a ‘snap.’

The undead monster went limp beneath him as its neck was crushed. Slowly Kalvin extracted the claws and teeth from where they had dug into his chest. Once free, he rolled off the monster and laid on his back panting and struggling to breathe from the exertion. His eyes closed so as to not accidentally see the horrid, dripping, bloody moon above him.

With the monster dead and the other Climbers having long since fallen, Kalvin should have been completely safe in the cemetery, so the soft exhale of breath just above him sent a shot of adrenaline directly into his heart. His eyes snapped open as he jerked to an upright sitting position, determined to not die laying down, only to pause as he found his face brushing against the white lacy cloth of a wedding dress.

“Izanami?” Kalvin asked, a note of fear in his voice, as he gazed up at the bloody bride. Too much had happened in such a short span of time, and he felt numb at the new knowledge that she could leave her post at the mausoleum.

“Apologies, Climber Kalvin. Did I startle you?” Izanami’s veiled face tilted down towards him as she answered.

“N-no, I mean yes. I mean it’s alright,” Kalvin stammered out as he pushed off the ground and stood.

“I see. Climber Kalvin, I’d like to apologize. I had intended on showing you what a Bloodstone looked like, yet it appears there has been some issue with the first floor's source and I ended up showing you something inappropriate. I didn't know the Bloodstone moon had been… corrupted. A challenger of your level should not have been shown such a thing. If you would allow me, I’d like to make amends.” Izanami said as she extended her hands towards Kalvin, palms up.

Unsure of what else to do or say, Kalvin followed Izanami's lead and placed his hands atop hers suppressing a shudder as her long claws brushed against his chest. He opened his mouth to say that Izanami didn’t have to apologize, that it was his fault since he’d asked, but no words came out as a flash of bright silver light silenced him. He gawked as from between their hands a pair of silvery snakes emerged, each snake slowly slithering up his wrists and coiling around his forearms. 

When he felt the snakes tighten around his arms, alarm bells started to ring in his head. Before he could move to shake away the snakes, they began to fade from view, becoming immaterial and ethereal. On his right arm, the silver serpent there slowly sunk into his flesh, disappearing into his body and vanishing from sight. The snake on his left began to fold itself, slowly forming into a gleaming image of a serpent rather than the real thing. The serpentine picture letting out a brief hiss before slipping beneath his pale translucent skin and laying itself atop his exposed radius, a bone in his forearm.

Izanami’s hands retracted then, and without another word, she drifted back to the mausoleum. Kalvin, still unsure of what had just happened and how getting a tattoo on his skeleton was an apology, turned away from the mausoleum and back to the entrance of the graveyard. 

His mind felt clear for the first time since waking up this life. Even better than before he’d looked up and seen, ‘that.’ The macabre emotions and memories came easily when he called for them and as he pushed them to the back of his mind, the sickly, gray energy flowed into his body, his strength returning almost immediately.

With his mana now recharged, eyes that didn’t dare look up, and his concentration restored, Kalvin stepped out of the entrance of the graveyard and onto the winding dirt path that led into the fog beyond.

Chapter 26

Kalvin followed the winding trail into the fog and found to his surprise that while the multitude of glowing red eyes twisted to watch him, nothing leapt out to attack him. He soon reached a crossroads, where the path split into three veins. The path to the left was filled with the same packed dirt as the trail from the graveyard, while the path to the middle was a wide cobblestone road that one might see out in the countryside. The path to his right was made of soft dark earth, and pressing a foot into the path caused the ground to compress and his foot to sink in, creating a muddy imprint.

After a moment of consideration, Kalvin stepped off the packed dirt path and onto the cold, cobblestone path. A few minutes later he found the mists growing thin around him. Soon, large rectangular shapes dotted the horizon, and Kalvin emerged from the fog and into a town square. 

Squat stone buildings with rotting thatch and timber logs surrounded him. Broken down doors and ripped off shutters gave Kalvin views into the small homes as he passed by, revealing empty rooms and ruined, rustic furniture. Rather than the towering skyscrapers of the city he’d been in before waking up in that graveyard, this place reminded Kalvin of a small, rural village stuck in the past. 

In the center of the village square sat the largest building, a malformed, stone church with a twisting steeple that wobbled slightly as Kalvin approached its large double doors. The houses here lacked any form of door, so as if to make up for that, the heavy rustic wooden doors of the church creaked and groaned with their weight, refusing to budge at first as Kalvin tried to push them open.

When he set his shoulder to the door and shoved it swayed inwards, revealing a dimly lit room of worship. A long red carpet stretched out from just inside the doorway, splitting the room down the middle and running all the way to the central dais where a small podium stood. Kalvin’s grip tightened on the door as he took in the pews that lay on either side of the carpet. He’d found the village’s inhabitants.

Each pew contained several villagers, or at least what was left of them. Whatever had happened here hadn’t been recent. The smell of rot and decay had long since vanished from their flesh and now only the stagnant scent of death mixed with something astringent lingered in the air. Kalvin stepped a little closer to the nearest man whose body had been slouched against the pew, breathing in the air to try and place the extra scent.

It took him only a moment to recognize the scent, something he’d attempted to use on himself once out of desperation, Formaldehyde. Someone had taken the chemical and sprayed it over these bodies to preserve them. Kalvin stepped away from the dead man and slowly crept down the red carpet, his eyes scanning the dais as his mind questioned why someone would want to preserve these bodies and stage them in such a way.

A small door at the back of the church opened, sending dust flying out as a small figure staggered into the room. Kalvin raised his right hand, centering it and his screen on the creature, preparing to fire a Dreadbolt if it attacked him. As the cloud of dust settled, the small figure clad in the black and white of a priest stumbled into view.

Kalvin’s eyes narrowed at the sight of the man, his hand wavering slightly. White wispy hair, faded blue eyes, and creases that covered every inch of the man’s face gave Kalvin a different feeling than the rotten ghouls or bloodsuckers that he’d been fighting. None of the presence or grace that Izanami exuded came from the man either. He was something else, something new, something different from the routine.

Slowly, Kalvin lowered his hand, dismissing the screen as he shifted from threat assessment to attempting to understand what this old man was doing inside the Tower.

“Hello?” A soft, raspy voice left the man’s lips followed directly by a coughing fit, during which the man hacked out several clouds of dust, before he continued to speak. “Hello? Is anyone there?”

Kalvin frowned and stepped closer, peering at the man’s faded blue eyes from across the room and finding the reason for his actions. There was a thin glaze covering the unmoving eyes. As he approached the old priest, the man recoiled, staggering back to the small doorway he’d entered from and retrieving a heavy black leather-bound book.

“I can smell ya, ya damned filthy undead! Come into my church, desecrate these hallowed halls, and try to eat my flock! Well, think again! FUERROAGA!” As the man spoke, he held the book aloft and as he shouted the final word, a crescent of flame swept out from the book stretching to fill the center aisle as it hurdled towards Kalvin.

“Fuck!” Kalvin shouted as he dove out of the way, throwing his body onto a nearby pew and into the lap of a dead villager. He gawked at the display of magical prowess as the wave of flame hit the carpet and then vanished without leaving a mark. His eyes snapped back to the old priest as he extracted himself from the dead villager’s body.

“How dare you come in here and curse you foul undead! This is the Lord’s domain…” the old priest said before trailing off and blinking in confusion. Slowly he lowered the book and frowned. “Did… a zombie just talk?”

Seeing his opportunity, Kalvin peeked up from behind the pew and said defiantly, “I’m not a zombie! I’m a human.”

“Ohhhhhhhhhhhhh! Sorry about that— WAIT! Is this a trick? Are you some kind of talking undead?” The old priest demanded as he raised his scrawny, gnarled hands and the book, pointing them towards where Kalvin had spoken.

“I mean… Technically no? Err… That’s not important. What are you doing here, old man? Why did you just throw a fireball at me?” Kalvin said as he stood and slowly shuffled out of the pew, to stand in the center aisle once he saw the old priest would not hurl another blast of fire at him.

“Well, I uh, thought ya were another one of those undead fools coming to rob me of my flock. Sorry about that. Haven’t had any visitors here since this place was pulled into the Tower,” the old priest said sheepishly as he scratched his cheek.

“The Tower? You know about the Tower? Are you a Climber?” Kalvin asked excitedly.

“Oh, heavens no lad! I’m just a priest.”

“What are you doing inside the Tower then?”

“Heh, don’t ya mean what am I doing inside the Tower alive?” The old man said with a chuckle as he turned back to the small door he’d burst out of while gesturing for Kalvin to follow. “Come along lad, I’ve got to get back to my tea before it gets cold. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a guest, but I’m sure I can rustle up something for your stomach while ya ask me what ya gotta ask.”

Still suspicious of the preserved villagers and eerie church, Kalvin followed slowly behind the man through the door and down a staircase into the basement of the church, eager for answers to the mystery of the town and the Tower.

Chapter 27

Kalvin didn’t know what he’d expected to find, but a cozy little kitchen that looked like it belonged to a grandma wasn’t it. A large oven dominated one side of the room, while the walls on either side were filled with cupboards and boxes. In the center of the room sat a small round wooden table with two chairs, the closest of which held a stack of books that the old priest was struggling to lift.

“Gimme just a moment, lad. I’ll get this cleaned up and we can get to talking,” said the priest as he hoisted up the pile of books and tottered across the room to deposit them in the corner.

Kalvin waited for the old man to settle into his own seat before taking the offered chair. Even with his lightweight, half-skeletal frame, the chair creaked and protested under him as he sat. 

“I meant to get Wilhelm to fix that chair before all this, I guess… It’s too late now,” said the old man mournfully as he poured two cups of tea.

“Wilhelm? Is there someone else in the village?” Kalvin asked curiously.

“You met him earlier, lad, when ya laid across his lap to dodge my fire. Here, tell me what you think of this,” the priest explained as he passed Kalvin a small ceramic cup filled to the brim, with steam still wafting off the top.

Kalvin was incredibly thankful for the cup of tea, bringing it to his lips to hide his grimace at the reminder of his earlier antics. He had wanted to sip the tea out of courtesy and get right into the questions, but as he took his taste of the earthy warm and sweet brew, he greedily gulped down the drink. It had been weeks, or longer, since he’d had anything to eat while trapped in here, and years since he’d been able to have anything besides hospital fare.

He drained his cup and set it back down harder than intended on the table, rattling the table slightly as he felt the warmth spread through his body and soothed something deep in his soul.

“Thank you. I didn’t know I needed that,” Kalvin said in a deep, sincere voice as he glanced at the now empty cup of tea.

“Nonsense! I’m just happy to have company after all this time. Help yourself to more. I’d pour it for you, but my eyesight's not as good as it used to be,” the old priest said with a chuckle.

Kalvin nodded and reached for the teapot to begin pouring himself another cup before realizing the old man probably hadn’t seen his nod. “Again, thank you. The tea was just what I needed. I’m sorry about laying in your friend’s lap earlier. I’m just not quite used to people flinging fire at me.”

“Haha, that’s quite alright. I’m sure Wilhelm wouldn’t have minded. Now lad, we’ve had a laugh and some tea, so I think some introductions are in order.”

“Oh! True, I’m Kalvin, Kalvin Atrophros.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you Kalvin, that’s quite the last name you have. I’m Father Malkovich, a priest of Kelem the Great Guide.” As the old man introduced his patron, he brought both hands together before him and bowed his head slightly in reverence.

Kalvin blinked slightly at the ceremonial gesture, unsure of if he should copy Father Malkovich or if he was supposed to say something in return. After a moment he settled on the safest possible answer. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Father Malkovich.”

“Now I’m sure you must have questions and I promise I will answer as many as I can, but first, I must ask one of my own!” The old priest said with growing excitement and hope filling his voice. The older man even leaned across the table towards Kalvin as he whispered, “Can you bring the dead back to life?”

Kalvin sat in stunned silence. Bring back the dead? That’s utterly insane, those who are gone can't return, everyone knows that. The long stretch of silence must have betrayed his reaction, because when no response came Father Malkovich slowly deflated and slouched back in his chair.

“It’s alright lad, it’s alright. It was heresy to even ask, but… I had to.”

“Is that why the people upstairs are preserved like that? You are trying to keep them intact until you can find someone to revive them?” Kalvin asked slowly as he connected the dots.

“Yes and no,” the old priest sighed before continuing. “I would put them to rest if I could, but since this village has been dragged into the Tower, anything that is buried comes back to life the next day. The thought of my flock, my friends, my charges becoming undead is… blasphemy. There would truly be no fate worse than that…”

Kalvin nodded along with the old man’s explanation. He certainly knew a thing or two about coming back to life the next day, although perhaps not in the same way. As he listened, he tried to come up with solutions, trying to wrap his mind how a Climber should think, how they would solve such a quest.

“How about cremation?” Kalvin asked excitedly, the macabre solution bursting out of his lips as soon as he registered the thought.

“I’ve thought of it, but… I don’t have the strength to transport the bodies far enough away from the village. While I thought of setting fire to the church, the thought of burning down a holy place dedicated to Kelem… I fear my Lord would not forgive me for that kind of blasphemy,” Father Malkovich said morosely, his tea growing cold as he stared sadly down at the black leather-bound book resting on the table

“If you could show me where you want the bodies transported too, I could do that for you and we could put them to rest together.”

Kalvin thought the man was about to refuse, as no answer came for a long time. Father Malkovich reached into his jacket and retrieved a small silver flask, opened it and brought it to his lips, taking a long swig from the container before swallowing with a grimace and turning back to Kalvin to answer him.

“I would be in your debt. When would you be available for such a thing?”

“Well, I don’t exactly have anything else going on at the moment. Would now be a good time to start?” Kalvin replied as he slowly stood up from the table, tilting his face away from the priest’s to not see the tears that were rolling down the man’s cheeks.

“Of course! Of course! Climber… Thank you. Thank you so much!” The old priest said as he staggered out of his seat and towards Kalvin.

He wrapped Kalvin in his thin, frail arms and squeezed him into a hug for several long seconds. Kalvin stood awkwardly, attempting to stand perfectly still to not disturb the grieving old man as several muffled sobs were released against his chest.

Finally, the old priest pulled away and gave Kalvin a warm, toothy smile as he wiped away his tears. “If yer ready, I’ll lead the way.”

Kalvin nodded stiffly in response, yet when the priest failed to answer or move, he remembered the old man’s poor eyesight and said, “Lead on Father Malkovich.”

And so back up the stairs they went. Father Malkovich led with Kalvin following just behind until they reached the large double doors. Kalvin stepped forward then, out of consideration for the priest’s age, while saying, “I’ll open the doors. They were a bit stuck last time.”

Father Malkovich gave a nod and smile, stepping back towards the pew as Kalvin dug his feet into the stone floor and tugged on the handle of the door. The heavy wooden door let out a low groan before slowly swinging open to reveal the desolate village outside. Then without warning, darkness filled Kalvin’s vision, and he died.

Chapter 28

Kalvin jolted upright, sending dirt flying as he shot out of his shallow grave in a fury. Did that old man stab me in the back!? Kalvin's thoughts raced as he ignored the complaints coming from his left side while he began extracting his lower half from the dirt.

Maybe it was poison? He thought as he slowly dragged himself out of the grave and shambled towards the entrance. The tea could have been poisoned, or a monster could have been waiting outside. I should have been more careful.

Kalvin let out an annoyed growl as he reached the entrance, ignoring the shout of “Zombie!”, Thames's continued effort to rally the people, and the inevitable death of the middle-aged woman. He sat and waited for everyone to die, absorbed completely by his thoughts, by what could have gone wrong and what he could do better in this life.

The mausoleum appeared, Izanami showed herself, and Thames' led an impressive defense lasting nearly six waves, before falling under the claws of six ghouls. With his plan made and the energy of 60+ deaths fueling him, Kalvin stood and charged into the midst of the battlefield.

His claws made quick work of the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls and he rushed through the harvesting, using his precious neurotic energy to speed up the process and tear out the monster cores to consume them. Kalvin's level skyrocketed and in less than 10 minutes, he found himself with a new set of upgrades.

Dreadblade (Common): Conjures a bladed weapon of miasma into the caster's hand. Last until dawn.

Cost: 10 mana

+2 mana

+2 mana

+2 mana

+2 mana

+2 mana

Ghostly Grasp (Rare): Conjures a floating, skeletal hand at a point the caster can see within 120 feet. Contact with the skeletal hand deals chilling necrotic damage.

Cost: 5 mana

Kalvin tested Dreadblade the moment he finished spending his upgrades. Rather than a beam of radiant light descending and a sword appearing in his hand, a swirling orb of darkness emerged from the ground and slowly unfurled. The darkness slowly shaped into the petals of a flower that opened to reveal the handle and hilt of the sword.

Kalvin wrapped his hand around the hilt and pulled it free from the center of the dark flower. The blade slid smoothly out of the flower, the petals falling away and disappearing as they drifted down to the ground. Kalvin marveled at how light the small sword felt in his hand. The entire weapon seemed to be forged from a single piece of a cold black metal that seemed to drink in the dim light around it.

After giving the blade a few swings and checking his mana, Kalvin exited the graveyard. He’d been tempted to wait for his mana to recharge and test out Ghostly Grasp, but the longer he waited the more his frustration at Father Malkovich’s perceived betrayal grew. He marched down the path, scything the blade back and forth absently until he reached the cobblestone path and the deserted village.

Things are going to be different this time, Kalvin thought as he entered the village and stomped into the small town square. However, he didn’t immediately barge into the church and demand answers, knowing that Father Malkovich wouldn’t be aware of what he’d done in the last life. Instead, Kalvin searched the square, ducking into a small house that stood across from the church. 

He combed through the small two-room house, searching for anything that could have attacked him as he stepped out of the church. Finding nothing but cobwebs and dust, Kalvin retreated unsatisfied. Every house that had a window or door facing the church’s entrance received the same treatment till finally, Kalvin was sure that he hadn’t missed some kind of ambush from outside the church. 

His suspicion now seemingly confirmed, Kalvin marched up the steps of the church and shouldered open the door. The frame let out a groan, and the church creaked loudly as if to complain before the door shuddered once and swung in to reveal the small dais, red carpet, and pews filled with preserved, dead villagers.

Kalvin made his way to the left of the church, stepping past the pews and walking towards the almost hidden alcove that contained the small door. He’d just reached it when the door creaked open and a cloud of dust exploded outwards.

A coughing Father Malkovich soon emerged from the dust cloud, his faded eyes unmoving as he shouted into the church.

“Hello!?”

“Hello Father,” Kalvin replied coldly, barely keeping his anger contained for now as he took in the sight of the small, slightly hunched older priest who had most likely murdered him.

“A visitor to our town? No, no, no, this is a Tower now. That would make you a Climber then wouldn’t it?” Father Malkovich asked as his head swiveled back and forth as if trying to locate Kalvin.

Kalvin’s eyes narrowed at the priest’s movements, and the memory of the man’s perfectly aimed blast of fire and the way he’d moved the books upon entering his kitchen replayed through his mind. “Yes. I’m a Climber who just entered the Tower. My name is Kalvin.”

“Kalvin? That’s a fine name, lad! I’m Father Malkovich, priest of Kelem the Great Guide. Welcome to our town, or well, what’s left of it. You said you’d just entered the Tower eh? I’m sure you must have questions, lad. How about joining me for a cup of tea? I’ve got a question of my own for ya.”

Kalvin nodded in response to the old man’s offer, knowing what was about to happen and he was determined to not be caught unaware this time. “I’d be happy to join you for tea.”

Chapter 29

Kalvin scrutinized the old priest’s movements as he led the way down the stairs and into the cozy little kitchen. When Father Malkovich picked up the books, Kalvin sprang forward, lifting the books before he could.

“I’ve got this Father. You needn’t strain yourself,” Kalvin said as he deposited the books onto the nearest counter.

“Oh, well, thank ya, lad. Just have a seat right there while I get the tea ready,” Father Malkovich said as he gestured towards the small round table.

“Yes Father,” Kalvin replied calmly, yet despite his words he made no motion to sit. Instead his gaze intensely scrutinized the priest’s hands, watching as he fetched an extra cup from a cupboard and began to slowly pour two cups of tea. The teapot wobbled slightly in the elderly man’s gnarled hands, but despite his focused scrutiny Kalvin hadn’t seen the man tamper with the tea. Still, when Father Malkovich pushed a cup across the table, Kalvin quickly swapped the cups, taking the Father’s for his own just in case the cup was poisoned and not the tea.

Even then, as he brought the steaming teacup up to his face, Kalvin faked sipping the drink before setting it back down on the table and murmuring his thanks. “Thank you Father. I didn’t know I needed that. Warm tea on a cold day is a most welcoming gesture.”

“Tis just a bit of common sense,” Father Malkovich said as he sipped his own tea before setting it down and leaning across the table, fixing Kalvin with a piercing stare as his normally warm, cordial voice turned heavy and stoic. “Do you mind if I ask you a question?”

“Of course not, Father. Ask away.”

“Can you bring the dead back to life?”

Kalvin had expected the question, but the intensity of the priest’s words and the burning passion in the man’s eyes shook him for a moment. Did this man really stab me in the back? He thought briefly before shaking his head. “No, Father Malkovich. I can’t bring the dead back to life.”

“I see,” said the old priest as he visibly deflated and slouched back into his chair.

A muffled sob racked the man’s chest before he shivered, closed his eyes, and bowed his head in a moment of silence. When he was finished, one hand lifted to wipe at his eyes  before the elderly man addressed Kalvin once more. “I apologize. I know you must have questions that need answers. I just didn’t realize how much I was clinging to the hope that someone would save us from this place.”

Kalvin sat quietly, reminiscing about how he’d clung to the hopes provided by each new doctor and quack he’d found to fix his condition. Every time the dream of being cured that he had clung to had fallen apart, it had hurt a little more. Kalvin found that same pain present in the man’s eyes. Slowly his suspicions waned and his sympathy grew in front of the genuine suffering coming from Father Malkovich.

“Is there anything I can do to help?” Kalvin asked when it was clear Father Malkovich had nothing else to say.

“I’m uncertain how you could honestly. Perhaps if I told you a bit about the village and its history, a solution could present itself, but I wouldn’t wish to bore you with such things.”

“I’ve got time. Lots of it, in fact,” Kalvin replied with a calm smile.

“How curious. I’ve always heard of Climbers being obsessed with time, always racing to the next Level, the next monster, or the next quest. Nonetheless, I’m quite thankful for your patience and company. Now where to begin?” Father Malkovich paused there, taking a moment to sip his tea. When he finished and sat the tea cup back down, the old priest nodded sagely. “How about at the beginning, the start of it all, the plague?”

“Our village has always been small and remote. We are always the last to receive news from the wider world. So when a courier from Biscay came into the town and told us of a plague spreading from France down into Spain and the horrors it had wrought, we were quite shocked. Estavan, our mayor, gathered everyone in the town square and had the courier describe the symptoms to our small village. Fevers, vomiting, and shortness of breath, till finally parts of your body burst open and leak pus. The young man went into an excruciating amount of detail, before Estavan could call for a halt.”

Father Malkovich paused, gazing off into the distance and shaking his head slightly. “Estavan then concluded the meeting, stating that if anyone should have one of the symptoms, they should come to the church and seclude themselves to not risk the lives of their loved ones. Everyone in the village readily agreed. Alas, if only we had only known it was already too late, for that night the courier who was to leave in the morning grew feverish and by the next day his body was covered in sores that leaked the vile plague. Estavan found him and brought the young man here for me to look after. I could do nothing sadly, for the plague was not magical, nor was it divine. I could only provide Kelem’s guidance to the lad and comfort him. He passed before dusk that same day, and when I awoke the next day, a stream of villagers entered the church, each of them showing the symptoms.”

“How many?” Kalvin asked quietly as he thought of the hundred plus people packed into the pews upstairs.

“Nearly fifty, almost half of the villagers filed into the church in less than a day. It was too much. Can you imagine losing half of your people? Your neighbors, friends, and family? I did my best, but I confided the truth to Estavan, that truly there was nothing I could do besides watch the people I cared for pass away. That was my mistake. I know now that I should have held my tongue and watched in silence. For what I said caused Estavan to grow cold and distant. Naught half a day had passed before the man was carrying his daughter Esme into the church and laying her down on a pew. He bid me to watch over her for a few days. The man had an air of… finality about him. Tell me lad, have you ever seen a man who has accepted his own death and will throw away everything for another?”

Kalvin nodded slowly, thinking of how single-mindedly his grandfather had cared for his ailing grandmother in her last few days, the lengths he’d gone to for her to just feel fractionally more comfortable before she passed. “I have, Father.”

“Then you know just how far Estavan would go. I confronted Estavan. I demanded to know what he was planning to do, what foolhardy errand could call him away from his daughter in her time of need. He told me then that he would climb the mountain’s peak and descend into the Devil’s Spire. I begged him not to, I told him that disturbing that evil would doom not just our village, but the world. Estavan only looked at Esme and left without saying another word. Three days later, the village turned as you see it now. The shutters, doors, and roofs of the other buildings rotted away, leaving only empty stone shells in the place of our homes. Then the fog came and with it, the undead. I think in some twisted way Estavan’s wish was granted, sacrificing the many for the sake of a few. For you see on the eve that the fog came and entrapped the village, the handful of villagers who were uninfected all vanished from this place, leaving only myself, the dead, and the dying. It was not until some years later, when I met a Climber and discovered the name for the new hell we had found ourselves, a Tower.”

At the end of the Father’s story Kalvin found his breath caught in his lungs. How long have you been trapped in here? Kalvin tried to ask, yet no words came from his lips as strength fled his body and darkness washed over his vision once again.

Chapter 30

I’m getting really tired of waking up covered in dirt. Kalvin slowly dragged himself out of his shallow grave and dragged his aching body towards the entrance. He threw himself down against the iron bars a few feet from the entrance to watch Thames’s effort in this life while puzzling out what he could have done wrong in the church.

As Kalvin watched the other survivors settle into their typical patterns, he thought about what had happened with Father Malkovich. He hadn't drunk the tea, so even if it had been poisoned, it wasn't the reason he died. The priest's story had sounded legitimate, the pain in the old man's voice had been real, plus Kalvin had been carefully watching. The priest had made no move to strike or attack him, yet he had still died instantly.

“What did I die from, though?” Kalvin asked with a frustrated murmur.

There was no answer, only the occasional screaming from the entrance mixed with Thames's shouted commands. His pondering only lasted a few minutes, as his eagerness to get back over there, to solve the mystery of what was going on in that small village, filled him with a nervous energy. His fingers trembled slightly and his lips curled into a scowl as he sat and waited for the first bodies to fall.

It didn’t take long for the first death, the same middle-aged woman as always, who dashed out into the fog while demanding to be taken home. With nothing else to do, and craving something to keep his mind off his last two deaths, Kalvin took a moment to inspect the other survivors. Abigail, Thames, and some men Thames always singled out for defense were familiar. Other than those few, none of the thirty strangers stood out.

Am I going about this the wrong way? Kalvin’s gaze drifted to those survivors who were idly conversing while Thames prepared his defense. It would be easier if I had someone to watch my back. After a moment's consideration Kalvin dismissed the thought. Explaining his appearance, the resurrections, and the village’s situation each reset would take far too much time. It would have been different, maybe, if someone from the hospital was here, a nurse, or even one of the cleaning staff, who had sympathized with him and knew his situation. As it stood, the only person worth telling right now would be Thames, and Kalvin still found the man’s grandstanding disgusting and his motives suspicious.

It took nearly an hour of waiting for Thames’s most recent attempt to fail, the monsters inevitably overwhelming them and wiping out the survivors. The entirety of which Kalvin sat in silence, watching the would-be-Climbers, trying to see if any of them stood out. One young man with brown hair who wielded stone wrapped around his arms showed potential, alongside a brunette woman with conjured shurikens of ice. They lasted till nearly the very end, before fleeing into the mists when their fellow survivors fell.

With no witnesses remaining, Kalvin slowly raised a gray claw of energy forming around one of his hands as he pushed into the horde of monsters. The entire battle took only a few minutes, while the core harvesting lasted until the next wave of monsters and the first Dieghest of the evening. After cleaning up those monsters as well, Kalvin wiped the cores clean and stepped out of the graveyard, starting the short trip to the church as he consumed the cores and rapidly leveled up.

This time, he selected the Passive and the Active upgrades to start before checking to see how much Mana he would need.

Whispers of Dredge (Rare): An entity of nightmares and dreams speaks to you, informing you of disturbing truths.

Boneshaping (Unique): Use Mana to alter the size, density, and shape of bones.

Cost: varies

“Boneshaping again,” murmured Kalvin as he considered turning back to fetch one of the monster corpses. In the distance, though, he could make out the crossroad and with it the start of the cobblestone road. Pouring the rest of his upgrades into Mana, Kalvin paused in his journey to gaze down at his skeletal left hand before glancing at the Active ability on his screen.

Knowing that the powers here seemed to only activate when you focused on them and deliberately used them, Kalvin concentrated on his pinky finger, trying to imagine shaping the slender digit into a deadly claw similar to the ones Izanami wielded. Once he could visualize the process and could hold his concentration on it, Kalvin tapped the Boneshaping line of text on his screen.

Instantly, he regretted his decision to not experiment on a monster first as pain pierced into his hand and shot up his shoulder. His concentration shattered almost immediately from the sudden agony, yet the Boneshaping continued despite his suffering. His pinky finger bone began slowly stretching, the porous bone becoming smooth, and more durable. Then, just as suddenly as the pain had come, it stopped. His Mana hit zero out of eleven and he was left with an additional inch of solid bone extending from his pinky finger that now ended in a sharp, deadly spike.

After a few test swipes of his new claw, Kalvin considered how useful his new creation would actually be. He could already manifest full claws around his hands by using his energy manipulation ability, so making a single finger bone longer and sharper wasn’t exactly a huge benefit. Soon his worries were validated as when he dropped his hand back to swing by his side, the sharp digit almost immediately scratched against his thigh.

“Fuck,” muttered Kalvin, as he lifted the offending claw up to glare at it. He glanced at the cobblestone path once more, considering what to do for a moment. Deciding it wouldn’t hurt to wait for his mana to recharge in order to fix this, he would head into town once that was done.

Chapter 31

It took what felt like an eternity for his mana to refill. Finally when it read 10 out of 11 mana, Kalvin decided that was enough waiting and stepped onto the cobblestone path. The final point could be refilled while he traveled. He resolved to do things differently in the village this time. When he reached the first house on the outskirts of the small town, he slipped inside.

It was sparse and small, with only two rooms, a tiny kitchen combined with a dining area and a cramped second room filled with clutter. Kalvin stayed in the house for several minutes in order to open the few cupboards in the kitchen and sort through the piles of rubble throughout the abode. Only a few preserved wooden toys and stones had survived the test of time.

Kalvin repeated the process with each abandoned house he came across, slinking inside to try and find something, anything, to verify Father Malkovich’s story from his previous lives. Yet each house he searched was nearly identical to the first. Cramped conditions, with two or three rooms, and almost everything so decayed that Kalvin doubted anyone had lived here for decades.

When Kalvin finally reached the town square, he’d run out of places to search. He’d already checked each of the houses around the church for an assassin or would-be-ambusher. The only possible reasons for his previous deaths were the church or Father Malkovich. So with a resigned sigh, he climbed the steps and knocked loudly on the heavy wooden double doors of the church.  After a few moments of silence at the door, Kalvin thought he heard movement inside the building and gave the doors another heavy knock.

Soon muffled shouting from Father Malkovich could be heard through the door. “Coming! Just a moment!”

Kalvin braced himself as the door strained and opened inwards, remembering abruptly that his first death here had taken place on the steps of the church where he now stood. His mind snapped to a combat state, concentrating on the memories and feelings of death as he prepared to face Father Malkovich and demand answers.

The doors finally stopped moving then and the old, hunched man hobbled forward, his glazed eyes scanning the doorway. “Hello!? Is anyone there? I heard your knocking!”

Kalvin opened his mouth to reply only to feel darkness creep across his vision, his concentration slipping. He struggled to resist, pulling on the energy inside his body as he twisted around, trying to detect his attacker. There was nothing. There was no one besides him and the old man struggling to see him from inside the church. A curse left Kalvin’s lips then as his body tumbled forward onto the church’s steps and true darkness greeted him once again.

Waking up in the same familiar shallow grave caused Kalvin’s anger to flare. Suppressing  the ever-returning pain, he erupted out of the dirt and surged out of the small pit. His rage and frustration carried him to the center of the graveyard, causing him to arrive at the entrance before the others for the first time. Kalvin paused at the entrance. He was tempted to charge out, kill a few ghouls and use their deaths to empower himself enough to make it to the village. 

He considered the foolish thought for a moment before settling onto the ground to watch the survivors as they streamed out of their graves and stumbled through the mist. Abigail, the punk with short hair, and the older woman who was shouting about her husband, were the first people to make it to the entrance besides him. Thankfully, either his lack of shambling around or the older woman’s increasingly loud demands to speak to the person in charge caused no one to notice Kalvin, or scream “Zombie!” at him.

As he watched the survivors' group around the entrance, Kalvin idly counted how many people spawned in the graveyard. When he reached a final total of thirty-one people, his brows furrowed and he felt like there should be more.  In his mind, a sea of different people emerged, with someone’s smiling, optimistic face surfacing from their midst, only for a dull, throbbing headache to derail his thoughts.

Kalvin was still struggling to focus on the strange, smiling face when Thames made his move. The blonde-haired man strode to the front of the graveyard, turned to look at the punk teenager and older woman who were in the middle of blaming each other for waking up in a cemetery. In the past lives Thames had tried to stop the woman and shaven-head teen from leaving the group, yet today he only watched until they and several others stomped off into the mists, saying nothing even when the woman was mauled to death by the red-eyed monsters lurking in the mists. In fact Thames didn't say a word, or make a single move, even when the mists cleared and Izanami appeared. 

As Kalvin watched curiously, he noticed the ever-present charismatic, arrogant smile Thames had worn was gone, replaced by lips pressed into a thin, determined line. Several other survivors streamed out of the graveyard, or attempted to speak to Izanami, receiving her customary greeting. By the time the first wave of monsters came, there were only fifteen of the original thirty-one people.

Kalvin had seen it before. They wouldn’t be able to survive over two waves without a plan, or knowledge on how to use their powers. Movement caught his attention then as Thames rose from his seat near the entrance, summoning his sword as he stood. The young man strode to plant himself near the opening in the fence to meet the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls by himself.

He’d seen Thames fight plenty of times before, overextending his lunges, more focused on micromanaging and manipulating those around him, or showboating his skill, the man had been a sub par fighter on the first day, but now after nearly twenty deaths on the front lines and near constant practice, the man’s training was showing results. Thames met the first wave with a flurry of slashes. In the past, he’d barely been able to take out one or two of the undead before being caught and torn apart. Now though he slashed at two creatures, killing one and crippling another, before dancing back, staying out of range of the shorter claws and teeth. He used his sword to bridge the gap as he slowly and surgically wiped out the first wave of monsters, while taking only a few thin scratches in return.

The other survivors seemed shocked by Thames’s actions, showering him with thanks and praise, while peppering him with curious questions about their current circumstances. Thames remained stoically silent throughout the ordeal, his gaze focused instead on red-eyes that hovered distantly in the mist. When the second wave came, the other survivors retreated, content to rely on Thames’s protection once more. Unfortunately, despite the improvement in his swordplay, Thames’s body was still a mortal one. The difference between himself and Thames became apparent in the second wave, as the man’s movements slowed and half-way through the fight his foot slipped, sending his strike off its line and causing the remaining four monsters to swarm over him and drag him to the ground.

Once there, Thames’s skill with the sword amounted to nothing as he flailed like a turtle on the back of its shell, striking out at any monster he could reach, but unable to right himself before the constant strikes of the undead reached something vital and ended his life. Kalvin watched coldly, testing his grip as he drained the new gray energy from this wave and from Thames’s death. There were still fourteen people alive here. He could save them for a while, but then what? Would they all die when he took them to the village? Or would he just be stuck here babysitting them?

With a shake of his head, Kalvin dismissed any thought of playing the hero today. He needed to get to the village and get answers, not look after a bunch of people destined to die. It seemed like not everyone in the group was so ready to die, though, as several of the survivors dashed forward from where they were huddled around the mausoleum, rushing towards the fallen sword like it was a beacon of hope.

Chapter 32

Abigail reached for the sword first, snatching it out of Thames’s hand and slashing at the closest monster. The two men who had been competing with her turned on their heels and fled back into the graveyard rather than fighting beside her. A quick slash at the head of the first monster, decapitated its skull, sending the top half flying into the face of another ghoul. Abigail spun out of the monster's striking distance, the sword swiping out in a crescent to block the monster’s retaliating claws.

A thrust forward drove the tip of the sword into the throat of a ghoul and rather than jerk the blade free, Abigail lifted her leg and drove her foot into the creature’s torso, knocking it off her sword. The undead scrambled forward to attack her extended leg, but the sword was there, perfectly interposing itself between the claws and teeth. Compared to Thames’s bumbling movements, Abigail’s smooth, flowing fighting style caused Kalvin to wonder if she was secretly reincarnating with them, and if so, when had she found the time to practice?

He didn’t worry for long though as the last monster of the second wave tripped over Thames’s body, causing its head to duck beneath Abigail’s sword strike, and allowing its claws and teeth to shred into her torso, ending the fight. Kalvin waited for the next wave to arrive, to sweep over the remaining survivors and leave him the sole witness to what would happen next. He stayed seated this time, focusing on manipulating the energy at a distance, trying to shape the energy next to the ghouls over thirty feet away from him into claws. Blades or knives proved to be out of his reach.

Yet as his mind drifted, he thought about a sharp object that appeared consistently in his memories of death, the one thing he’d always dreaded. A needle. Focusing on the space above a distant ghoul’s head where the gray energy drifted about, Kalvin slowly condensed the energy, forcing it to solidify while imagining its shape stretching into a needle as the mist became real. Something ‘clicked’ into place for Kalvin then, as a shining toothpick of metal appeared from beneath the floating cloud of energy and fell directly into the skull of the ghoul, killing it instantly.

Testing out the ability had been worth it. Izanami had made it clear just how difficult energy manipulation was to master and manipulate, yet in the last few deaths Kalvin had sped through things she said took years to learn. Condensing the mists into solid objects at a distance, might be a bad idea for actual combat though as Kalvin’s arms drooped and his head lolled forward, his entire body feeling drained as all of his energy had been spent on controlling that one small attack.

The only thing that saved him from having to restart this life was the copious amount of fresh food the ghouls had and their complete lack of awareness. He spent the next five minutes drawing the energy to him and absorbing the energy into his body. Once his exhaustion ended and his strength returned, Kalvin slowly stood and made his way to the remaining ghouls. They were easy enough to tear apart. Practice had made him into the perfect killing machine of small undead creatures. Even when the first Diegheist appeared, he dealt with it smoothly, capturing its tongue and ripping the monster in half. 

It took longer to harvest cores than it did to actually fight off each wave now. When everything was said and done Kalvin tore a mostly clean shirt off a nearby survivor and used it to wipe down the cores before consuming them. With that, the start of this life was complete and he began the short journey down the winding dirt path towards the crossroads while selecting his upgrades, a passive, an active, and some mana to use the new power.

Speaker of the Damned (Uncommon): The souls of the deceased will appear briefly after their deaths, enabling the user to ask them up to three questions.

Boneshaping (Unique): Use Mana to alter the size, density, and shape of bones.

Cost: varies

Mana

Mana

Mana

Mana

Mana

Kalvin frowned at the sight of Boneshaping appearing on his screen once again. There had to be hundreds of abilities, why were all the ones he kept getting creepy and related to death, or insanity? Still, he tried to activate the skill as he walked, by imagining one of his finger bones to shift from a rounded edge to a sharp tip. The process was just as slow and agonizing as before, cost half his mana, and almost shattered his concentration.

After suppressing the pain and letting his mana recharge, Kalvin turned back around. He’d gotten this active ability three times now and he could not use it properly even once. Determined to experiment with the power, he marched back to the graveyard so he could grab a few bones from the bodies there in order to test out if the ability was actually useful. Worst-case scenario, even if he made it to the village and died, at least he’d improved at something and made some kind of progress towards the future during this life.

The graveyard came into view for Kalvin just as a wave of undead surged into it, tearing at the remaining scraps of food. Curious, Kalvin stopped on the path, folded his arms across his chest and watched the gruesome sight.

“Do the monsters keep coming even if no one is here? Could I let them build up numbers and occasionally return to wipe them out and harvest their cores?” Kalvin asked himself as he tried to dissect the situation.

However, his musings were soon proven wrong, as there was someone left inside the graveyard. The little undead menaces soon finished their meals and charged towards the mausoleum. Izanami floated there just outside the mausoleum’s doors, unmoving, as the numerous monsters performed their signature leaping attack to dig their claws and teeth into her. As they dragged the bloody bride’s body to the ground, Kalvin saw the familiar darkness tinge the corners of his vision. Moments later, his body tumbled to the ground, mirroring Izanami’s, and in the next moment he awoke back inside his shallow grave.

Chapter 33

Kalvin stayed very, very still as he respawned inside his grave, processing what he’d just seen. Izanami had died to a wave of monsters, and then… he died. His eyes narrowed and his face pulled into a scowl as he considered the implications. Has that been happening every time I leave the graveyard? The whole time I’ve been blaming the church and Father Malkovich, but the problem was here?

Solutions slowly filtered through Kalvin’s mind as he tried to formulate a plan that would enable him to defend the graveyard while exploring his surroundings. Thames was the obvious answer. If he could convince the man to guard the graveyard or teach him to mount a decent defense, they could take turns uncovering the depths of the Tower. Kalvin considered what he knew about the man for several minutes, puzzling out whether he could trust the stranger with his secret while laying in the cold earth. He’d just overcome his initial hesitation and decided to reveal himself to Thames, when the screaming started again.

It was too early for the monsters to come, and too late for the initial panic. Curious about the change in his repetitive life, Kalvin slowly dragged himself out of his grave. The mists were just starting to slowly recede as his head peeked up from the shallow pit he’d awoken in. Monsters hadn’t come early, instead his fellow survivors were screaming and running from a bloody Thames who stood at the entrance, his sword covered in crimson with two corpses lying at his feet, the elderly woman and punk who always charged into the mist.

The other survivors were backing away in a panic. Several of the younger men were shouting at Thames to drop his sword and come back to his senses. Thames ignored the pleas of the others instead gazing off into the space before him. It was a look Kalvin knew well. Thames was checking something on his status screen. Thames soon straightened, his lips moving as he advanced on the crowd. Whatever he said was lost to the shouts and screams of the others.

Kalvin was pretty sure it didn’t matter though as Thames met a trio of college students who were attempting to surround him. It was a good tactic, but the moment Thames struck, beheading the student on his left, the others froze in horror. None of them had faced this kind of life or death situation, so Kalvin couldn’t blame them for freezing at the sight of a friend’s death. Their lack of combat experience cost them as Thames continued his attack, turning the single swing of his sword into a brutal slash across the middle student's chest, scraping the man’s rib cage before continuing to disembowel the third student.

Thames turned back to the middle student. The man raised both his hands into the air, clearly surrendering as his lips moved rapidly. Whatever the man said, it wasn’t enough to spare him as Thames drove his sword through the man’s chest to pierce his heart, killing him instantly. The cold, blonde killer then stepped over the dying man on his right. The gut wound he’d given the student was slowly, but surely killing him as the student’s insides leaked out of his stomach. It was a gruesome sight and for a moment Kalvin thought Thames would put the man out of his mercy, only to be disappointed as he stepped over the dying man to chase after the other fleeing survivors.

What happened next wasn’t a battle, it was a plain and simple massacre. It took longer for Thames to chase down a survivor than it did for him to actually kill them. Soon the graveyard had turned into a horrifying game of tag, with a single blood-soaked lunatic killing instead of tapping someone’s shoulder. Kalvin frowned at the sight of the slaughter, slowly lowering his weakened body back into his grave while he tried to puzzle out a solution. 

This damned place! The second I think up a solution, the Tower snatches it from me. There is no way I can trust Thames to guard the graveyard. If he knew about someone else in the Tower that was reincarnating, ‌he could kill me before I gain enough Necrotic Energy to fend him off. Kalvin’s mind whirled as the screams and whimpers of the dying filled the graveyard.

Unable to think of a solution to Thames’ insanity Kalvin peeked out of his grave hoping to make a break for it, or find some kind of way to defend himself. He found salvation floating only ten feet away from him, a thin, white energy, coming not from any monster, but from the fallen survivors. The energy of death from his fellow humans shone without the gray miasma of the monsters to mask it. 

Kalvin sank into his mind, trying to find a memory of death to hold on to, only to find a fresh one almost immediately. The young college-aged student lay on the ground, gripping his insides, trying to shovel them back into his body, knowing it was useless and that he was about to die. He could feel the horror coming from the young man, the knowledge that he was going to die, and that everyone he knew was dead. Kalvin clung onto the memory, holding it in the back of his mind as he manipulated the weak energy.

Small tendrils of the sickly energy crawled across the graveyard, crept into his grave, and sank into his body. Kalvin had to forcibly hold down a groan, as he felt power surge through him at the same time as his pain was washed away. Reinvigorated and ready to wreak havoc on Thames, he peered out from his grave to catch the madman hacking mindlessly at a clearly already dead survivor.

Kalvin focused on the energy streaming out of the corpse, slowly and carefully attempting to condense it so he could make something useful without warning the man. I need to kill Thames without letting him know anyone else is stuck in the time loop with him. Kalvin’s thoughts darkened as he slowly solidified the energy, transforming it from the thin, white energy to the pale gray mist 

He’d just finished when Thames stood from his most recent kill, his wild eyes scanning the graveyard and settling on his next target, Abigail.

Chapter 34

This has to be a nightmare, Abigail thought as she woke buried in a shallow grave, struggling out of the pit and through the misty graveyard. She gripped her shoulders while shivering. Other figures around her were shouting and screaming for information. In the distance she could see what looked to be the exit from this hellhole. Making her way towards the opening in the iron bar fence, she found an older, sweater-clad, brunette woman berating everyone in her path and demanding to be released from this prank.

I’m going to die here. We are all going to die here. Abigail watched a strangely familiar blonde man drive a sword into the woman’s body, a sword that he’d just pulled out of a beam of light, no less. She fled from the man, retreating into the mists along with the other screaming survivors, attempting to take cover behind a tombstone.

The next few minutes were filled with the sounds of a massacre as the madman tore through any resistance the survivors put up. Perhaps if she had a weapon, or the man was unarmed, they would have stood a chance, or been able to overwhelm him. She even took out her cell phone in a desperate attempt to phone the police, only to find the screen was black and the device was unresponsive.

A shiver ran down Abigail’s spine as a nearby body hit the floor and the blonde man turned towards her hiding place. Regrets spun through her mind, old memories surfacing as she stared at the bloody sword that was about to reap her life. I’m sorry dad. Abigail breathed out and looked up into the face of her would-be-killer. It was a face she recognized.

Abigail waited for her death to come at the hands of the man she detested, and waited, and waited, until she saw the man’s hands tremble and shake. The crimson coated sword tumbled out of his fingers and fell to the ground. She snatched up the blade in the next moment, wrapping her hand around the hilt in one motion, and slashing out in the next motion.

The sharp edge of the short sword bit into the man’s side with a dull ‘thump’ and a moment later, the man toppled over, falling on the ground before a startled Abigail. Panicked, she took a step back, clutching at the sword as she examined it. Abigail’s thoughts raced as she knelt and pressed two fingers to the man’s throat, feeling for a pulse. That wasn’t a fatal blow. I… I wasn’t trying to kill him! Just stop him.

There was no pulse, yet not all hope was lost, as Abigail’s eyes locked onto a small gray needle sticking out of the man’s neck. She reached out intending to pull the long needle free, yet as her fingers brushed against it, the object rapidly dissipated into smoke, leaving her clutching empty air. Leaning forward, she could peer at the wound caused by the needle. It was a clean strike through the spinal column and up into the brain. The needle had killed the man before she had even grabbed the sword.

A sigh of relief left Abigail’s lips as she stood and stepped away from the corpse. The guilt and concerns that had temporarily weighed down on her for killing the man vanished. It was then the mists faded and her surroundings became clear. A large, ornate mausoleum stood in the center of the graveyard, with designs and engravings marking it as several hundred years old. Dotted around the graveyard were other survivors. Abigail counted two terrified men, and one woman, staring at the sword in her hands from their hiding positions.

Movement from the far corner of the graveyard caused her to reassess her count, as a man wearing a hospital gown slowly emerged from his grave. His body was… a medical marvel. She could tell even from a distance the man’s left side was mostly skin and bone, yet in complete contrast to the skeletal left side, the man’s right side seemed healthy and almost muscular. As the man strode across the soft earth, closing the gap between them, Abigail’s hands tightened around the hilt of the sword and she reflexively brought the weapon up to a guard position.

“Stop right there!” She shouted at the man, while trying to make eye contact with him. There was something unnerving about him. More than just the hospital gown, or atrophied left side, the man looked like he had just walked right out of a B-horror movie, As he turned his head towards her, Abigail understood he was not a character from one of her nightmares, for there was something very real and very cold in his eyes.

Despite her shout and their eye contact, the man’s approach didn’t slow, so Abigail steeled herself and prepared to slash at the man should he step within range. All her preparations were for naught, however, as the man stepped past her just as a howling wind erupted from the mausoleum and a floating woman in a rather old-fashioned, conservative wedding dress emerged from within.

The strange half-a-man came to a halt just in front of the bride and completely ignored the massive bloodstain on the otherwise spotless satin dress. “Izanami, if a monster enters the graveyard and attacks you, do we die?”

What happened next surprised Abigail enough that she lowered her sword and stepped closer to the eerie pair. The clearly dead woman replied and addressed the man as one of the most powerful people in the world, a Climber.

Chapter 35

“Greetings Climber. Let me be the first to welcome you to the Tower of Sheol. As for your question, yes. If the Tower provides a Climber with a Guide, said Climber is expected to protect that Guide. So if I was to perish or come under assault from a monster, you would fail the Tower. What an insightful first question. Is there anything else you wish to ask?” Izanami replied to Kalvin in her serene voice, a note of amusement lingering on her final few words.

“Is there a way to stop the monsters from coming into the graveyard or to end the waves?” Kalvin asked, while turning away from Izanami to survey the four survivors who were slowly approaching.

“Yes. Completing the floor, or Climbing to the next floor, will halt the spawning of monsters. Physically preventing them from entering the graveyard would also work.”

“I see,” Kalvin answered distractedly as Abigail and the other three came to a stop a few arm’s lengths away from him, each of them wearing various expressions of distrust, curiosity, and fear.

Unsurprisingly, it was Abigail who broke the silence. “Is… what she said true? You’re a Climber and this is a Tower?” 

Kalvin glanced towards the sword in Abigail’s hands and then towards the body of Thames in the distance behind her. Perhaps I can try being the hero for once, he thought before smiling. “Yes I’m a Climber, and so are each of you. If you don’t believe me, you have only to look at the dead man who summoned a sword from nothing, or perhaps activate your Status Screen.”

“Status Screen? Like a video game?” One man murmured in reply, his eyes growing wide.

“I think so. Here let me show you,” Kalvin answered calmly, attempting to force his face into a smile in order to reassure the group. When the only responses to his half-smile, half-grimace were several uneasy winces and steps away from him, he gave up on the attempt to appear friendly and explained the method to open their screens just as Izanami had to him before.

Once each of them had that vague, distant look on their faces that happened each time someone stared at a screen only they could see, Kalvin fed them the next most important part of the puzzle.

“Each of you should press the button at the bottom of your screen labeled Abilities. That will inform you of your unique power.”

“Holy smokes! I see it! Fiery Fists? That’s SO COOL! Uh, how do I activate it?” The young man asked as he pressed his finger against his screen.

Kalvin gestured towards the man’s now glowing red hands. “It looks like you already did. Just pressing the text activates your Ability. I imagine if you were to punch a ghoul with those fits you’d sear or burn them.”

The man’s enthusiasm and blistering smile caused that same smiling face to reappear in his mind, and throbbing pain to erupt inside his skull. Quickly he turned away from the man, his eyes closing as he massaged his temples in a desperate hope to alleviate the pain.

While Kalvin was dealing with his pulsing headache, the young man with fiery fists took advantage of the silence.

“Uh, well, if this is a Black Tower then we are all stuck here. Maybe we should introduce ourselves?” He said nervously while looking at the others, clearly seeking their approval. When no one objected he continued. “My name is Jeremy and as you all just heard, my power is called Fiery fists. I guess it makes my fists super hot?”

When Jeremy finished speaking, he looked to the woman on his left, gesturing for her to go next. Her lips pursed for a moment before she crossed her arms over her chest and said, “Names Tasha. The screen says ‘Combination Cauldron’, but when I press the button nothing happens.”

Hearing Tasha’s complaint, Kalvin nodded towards Izanami. “Nice to meet you Tasha. Once introductions are finished I’d recommend asking our Guide, Izanami, about the particulars of your Ability.”

“Yeah?” Tasha asked skeptically as her eyes drifted over the floating, bloody bride, lingering on the sharp-looking claws extending from her white arm-length gloves. “And what about you? What’s your name and what’s with this place? How do we know this is a Tower and not some elaborate prank?”

Jeremy cut in then, leaping to Kalvin’s defense. “How do you explain the screens? Or the floating woman, or the fact my fists are glowing red?”

Tasha snorted in derision at Jeremy before shaking her head. “It could be a hallucination, or even simpler than that, you could be in on the prank.”

“Isn’t it easier to believe you are in a Tower? People disappear into Black Towers all the time now,” Jeremy replied with a scowl.

Tasha merely glowered at Jeremy in return, making her stance clear on the matter. With nothing to contribute to the conversation and understanding they were quickly running out of time, while getting further and further from the topic at hand, Kalvin turned to Abigail. “What is your name and power?”

Abigail said nothing for several seconds, causing Kalvin to remember that last time he’d spoken to her she’d said something about her Ability not being useful or not matter. Would she still give such an answer this time? When she finally spoke, Kalvin found himself puzzled by her answer.

“I’m Abigail, and my power is called… Lesser Cleansing of Radiance?”

“Cleansing? Like healing?” Jeremy asked excitedly.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” Abigail answered with a shrug.

“We are getting off topic. We don’t have long before the monsters appear. Let’s finish the introductions for now and ask Izanami about the Abilities we don’t understand after the first wave.” Kalvin knew it was the wrong thing to say. When he said the word monsters, he instantly saw the other’s faces twist from confusion and excitement into expressions of fear and shock.

“Monsters!?” Abigail shouted.

“Like actual monsters?” One of the other men asked.

“NO NO NO!” Tasha screamed as she retreated.

Kalvin felt a headache coming on as all the survivors tried to talk at the same time. How has Thames been dealing with thirty of these people all the time? Just a handful are driving me nuts. That line of thought was cut short though as Jeremy lifted his hand, pointed towards the entrance of the graveyard, and asked a question that silenced everyone.

“Are those monsters you are talking about?”

Chapter 36

Kalvin grimaced at the sight of the undead goblins bounding out of the mist and charging into the graveyard. He let his focus sink inwards, inspecting his energy reserves. Not enough for a weapon. We’ll have to do this the old-fashioned way, he thought as he broke away from the group and stalked towards the oncoming monsters.

“Uh…. Are you going to fight those things?” Jeremy asked nervously from behind him. His previous excitement having completely vanished at the sight of the decaying, starving ghouls.

“Yes, stay here,” Kalvin replied coldly as he came to a stop.

He planted his feet and shifted his pose. He angled his body so his right shoulder pointed towards the closest monster, creating as small a target as possible for its signature attack. Just as he’d predicted, the moment it came within range, it launched itself at him, leaping up with claws extended and teeth bared.

Kalvin smirked at the sight. His left foot dug into the earth and twisted as his right leg came up and his foot slammed into the skull of Lesser Ravenous Ghoul, crushing it. As the monster fell to the ground dead, the darker gray energy he preferred drifted up from the corpse and by the time the other monsters reached him, the ghostly outline of murky, gray claws had begun to wreath his hands.

Feeling the eyes of the others on him created a new sense of pressure. Kalvin felt the muscles in his shoulders tighten up as he met the closest pair of monsters. The first was treated to the same skull bashing sidekick, while the second had its claws knocked away with his right arm, and was treated to a weak punch from his left fist. With no strength behind the blow, his knuckles merely knocked against the creature’s chest, driving the ethereal outline of his claw harmlessly into the ghoul. He sharpened his focus then, demanding the energy to take the shape he desired and solidifying the metallic claws inside the monster, killing it instantly.

He yanked the bloody claw free of the corpse, and laid into the remaining ghouls. Without a weapon he could have taken some minor injuries or scratches. However now that he was armed with his claws and had a constant stream of Necrotic Energy empowering him, Kalvin swept through the remaining monsters in a matter of seconds.

When the fight ended, Kalvin let his claws dissipate into smoke before he turned back to the others. He was eager to finish introductions and rush them through a defense plan so he could get back to the village, but Kalvin knew as soon as he saw the others it would not be so easy. Awe had replaced Jeremy’s fear, his eyes were alight and a small trickle of drool was dribbling down his chin. As Kalvin met Tasha’s gaze he saw her scorn and paranoia had been replaced with a new problem, terror. She shivered and flinched away upon making eye contact with him. The others wore a numb, shocked expression, while Abigail’s face held something else entirely.

Her lips were pursed, her eyes narrowed, and brows furrowed as she watched his claws dissipate. As he rejoined the group, he saw her gaze dart away from him, to land on the fallen Thames, then in a slow, even voice she asked, “Kalvin, that power of yours… Could it be used to make a long needle? Perhaps the length of an index finger?”

He recognized what she was really asking almost immediately. ‘Did you kill Thames?’ Kalvin let his eyes meet Abigail’s, appraising her for a moment, trying to understand why she was asking the question. He found no fear, no terror, or horror in her eyes, just curiosity unlike the others. She wasn’t afraid of his Abilities. 

“I could make such a thing if I needed to,” he replied calmly.

“I understand. Thank you for stopping that monster earlier,” Abigail said with a slight bow.

Kalvin glanced over her shoulder towards Thames’s body briefly before nodding to Abigail.

“It was what had to be done. We shouldn’t dwell on things in the past. Let’s focus on surviving before we worry about anything else.”

“Very well. For now, shall we continue the introductions, then ask the Guide for explanations?” Abigail asked as she lifted her head.

Kalvin nodded in reply and the pair of them turned towards the final two men to hear about them. The shorter, brown-haired man of the pair stepped forward first and shrugged. “Name’s Sean. The screen says my power is called Poseidon’s Pantry. And uh… well, when I pressed the button like you said, this is what I got.”

Sean held out his hand to display a small strand of still-wet seaweed.

“That’s quite a power. Is it always seaweed? Or does it give you other things from the ocean?” Kalvin asked curiously.

“Dunno,” Sean replied as he wiped the slimy piece of seaweed off his hand.

Kalvin turned away from Sean upon witnessing the man’s disinterest, placing his attention on the last man instead. The man squirmed beneath his gaze and opened his mouth to stutter out an answer.

“U-uh, it’s called B-breekon and hope?”

“Your name is Breekon? And your power is called Hope? Or is it the other way around?” Kalvin asked while tilting his head to the side.

“N-no, my name is Leon. My Ability is called Breekon and Hope,” the man said with a shake of his head.

“So what does it do?” Kalvin asked impatiently.

“Nothing? I pressed the button and, well, nothing. No flaming fists, no cool spooky claws, no fancy sword, no seaweed, just…. Nothing,” Leon replied dejectedly, his shoulders slumping and his chest seeming to deflate.

Unsure of what else to say, Kalvin shrugged and gestured towards Izanami. “Well, let’s ask about it.”

Both Kalvin and Leon turned towards Izanami, eager for answers. A sense of relief washed over Kalvin as the introductions ended and their small group was finally able progress onto the next step. The moment of relief was then immediately dashed as Abigail cleared her throat behind him to get his attention.

“Didn’t we agree to speak to the Guide after introductions are finished?” 

“We did?” Kalvin slowly answered, while wondering where she was going with this point.

“Well, you still haven’t introduced yourself, nor have you told us what your power is, and I think I can speak for all of us. When I say, I’d like to know a little more about how you know what’s going on here. How did you know monsters were coming? How could you use your Ability before any of us? And most importantly, who are you… really?”

As Abigail finished her rapid-fire questions and took a breath, Kalvin found the other survivors staring at him, curiosity ablaze in each of their eyes. Feeling further away from solving the mystery of the village, and regretting his decisions this life, Kalvin mirrored Abigail, taking a deep breath of his own before he explained.

Chapter 37

At first Kalvin struggled on how he could explain everything, yet as he glanced past the group his eyes settled on Thames and a solution clicked into place.

“I'm Kalvin. My power is called Necrotic Energy Manipulation. As to how I have a clue what's going on, it's simple. I've previously received Climber Training,” Kalvin said with a shrug, borrowing the same excuse that Thames had used before. Better yet, if he considered the last ten lives as practice, he wasn’t technically lying about receiving Climber Training.

“Climber Training? What family are you a member of to receive Climber Training? And… do you look like that because of your Ability, or because of the training?” Abigail asked skeptically.

Kalvin blinked at her in response, his eyelid twitching slightly as she brought up his appearance. A glance down revealed he was still just wearing the hospital gown, so perhaps he couldn’t totally blame her, but never in the past lives had she asked Thames about which family he was a part of… Why only ask him?

“I don’t think you’d have heard of my family. It’s a small one after all. As for my appearance,” Kalvin paused and gestured down to his attire, a single hospital gown. “It's because of an unrelated issue that I was receiving treatment for when all this happened.”

Abigail’s eyes narrowed at the start of Kalvin’s excuse. By the end of his explanation she let out a defeated sigh and gestured towards the mausoleum. “Fine. Your business is your business. No need for us to worry about the past. Let’s focus on the present and get those answers about our Abilities.”

“Aw, I wanted to know what family he was part of!” Jeremy said excitedly. “Imagine if it was the Kalaveta. Their ice powers are crazy, and I hear the head of the family is an A rank Climber.”

Kalvin and Abigail both ignored the exuberant young man, and walked over to the floating Izanami, the others falling into place behind them

“Do you know if more monsters will approach the graveyard?” Abigail asked Kalvin as they came to a stop in front of the mausoleum.

“I’d say yes. We'll need to fight them off, but the more that comes the stronger we can grow. I’ll explain once we identify everyone's powers. Tasha, you are up first. Ask Izanami about your power,” Kalvin said as he nodded towards the older woman.

“Fine,” Tasha answered as she glanced at Izanami. “Uh, so my Ability is called Combination Cauldron. Can you tell me what it’s supposed to do?”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Climber. As your Guide I would be happy to tell you about Combination Cauldron. Simply place two items you’d like to combine in one hand, then activate the Ability.” Izanami’s answer was surprisingly helpful and succinct. Kalvin momentarily wondered about where the previous condescension she’d shown him and Thames had gone, but shrugged it off.

Tasha stepped back from Izanami and surveyed the surrounding area. She quickly plucked two blades of grass from the ground and held them in her left hand while activating her Ability. A bright light blocked Kalvin’s sight for a moment and when it faded a small leaf now lay in her hand.

“So monsters are trying to kill me, and I can now make leaves from grass. Great,” Tasha whined with more than a little annoyance clear in her voice.

Kalvin turned away from Tasha and gestured towards Leon.

“Your turn.”

The nervous, young man nodded and inched closer to Izanami, speaking in a soft, barely discernible voice as he asked, “My name is Breeckon and my power is called, uh, Leon and Hope. C-could you tell me what it does? Please?”

“Well met Climber Breeckon. Unfortunately for you, I’m unfamiliar with any such Ability,” Izanami replied with an air of disinterest.

“He’s just mixed up. What he means to say is that his name is Leon and his Ability is called Breeckon and Hope, ma’am!” Jeremy supplied helpfully from behind Leon.

“I see. Thank you, young man,” Izanami replied to Jeremy before turning back to Leon and saying, “I’m familiar with Breeckon and Hope. A fascinating Ability that is one of the few Active Abilities that doesn’t require mana. In order to use theAbility, you merely need to place your hand atop a coffin, and then trigger the Ability. Anything inside said coffin will vanish.”

“V-vanish? Like it’ll be moved somewhere else? Or will it be destroyed?” A puzzled Leon asked.

When Izanami gave no reply to Leon’s questions, Jeremy spoke, echoing Kalvin’s own thoughts. “Isn’t there a bigger problem? Where are we going to get a coffin?”

The downcast expression on Leon’s face as he registered Jeremy’s words caused Kalvin to almost volunteer to build a coffin for the poor man. Instead, Kalvin steeled his will and gestured towards Sean.

“You’re up. Let’s find out what you can do.”

Sean sighed and wiped his hands on his jeans as he stepped marginally closer to Izanami and asked in a monotone, “Could you tell me what Poseidon’s Pantry does?”

“It’s nice to meet you as well, Climber,” Izanami said coldly before answering Sean’s question. “Poseidon’s Pantry reaches into the ocean and plucks out an item.”

“I see,” Sean said with a shrug as he stepped back into line with the others, a disheartened look on his face.

Kalvin winced upon hearing the lackluster explanation and worse, seeing Sean’s lack of enthusiasm. It might be difficult to convince the man to defend the graveyard. Kalvin pivoted to the only person left with a potentially useful unknown ability, a glimmer of hope remaining in his voice as he said, “Abigail, you’re up.”

Chapter 38

Abigail didn’t immediately move when Kalvin called her name. Instead she took a moment to examine Izanami, looking her up and down, clearly seeing something he did not. When Abigail finally stepped forward, she gave Izanami a small bow.

“Greetings ma’am, I am Abigail Alstrom. As I just recently became a Climber, I would appreciate any guidance you could provide me.”

Izanami’s claws reached down to tug at her dress as she performed a slight curtsy before replying. “It's a pleasure to meet you, Climber Abigail. I am your Guide, Izanami the Betrayed. As your Guide, I promise you I will do everything in my power to help you grow and Climb the Tower. Let me be the first to welcome you to the Tower of Sheol.”

“The pleasure is all mine, Lady Izanami. Would it be alright if I asked a few questions related to Climbers and the Tower?”

“Ask away Climber Abigail,” Izanami said warmly.

“Thank you, Lady Izanami. My Ability is called Lesser Cleansing of Radiance, yet I’m unsure of how to use it or what it cleanses exactly. Upon activating the Ability, I can see small motes of colored lights. Do the different colors signify something and if so, how do I interact with them?” 

“Lesser Cleansing of Radiance,” Izanami repeated slowly as she tilted her head to ponder. “It’s quite the unique Ability. Something of a powerhouse in certain Domains, especially if you can grow it into a Greater Cleansing. I’m getting ahead of myself though. Let's start with a simple breakdown of the Ability, and what it can do now. First, the Lesser in the front implies it’s an Ability with room for growth. You’ll find yourself able to increase the power of the Ability as your mastery over it increases. Second, the Cleansing mentioned in the Ability is not healing or scorching the earth. You will not repair limbs, or destroy mountains with the Ability. Cleansing is the act of removing something unclean, something that should not be there, or should not exist. Third, Radiance refers to the method the removal takes. Radiant Energy will try to wipe away impurities. It’s light without warmth, fire without heat. At your current level, you’ll be able to see only a fraction of that power though. If you understand what I’ve said so far, I can move on to practical applications of your Ability, Climber Abigail.”

Watching Abigail and Izanami’s interaction, Kalvin’s eyes narrowed and his expression soured. He’d interacted with the Guide nearly a dozen times now and yet never had she been so open or fully introduced herself. Something about Abigail’s approach stung him. This was the first time she had spoken to the woman and yet the Guide had been more helpful and forthcoming than all of his previous attempts at conversation with her.

“Yes, Miss Izanami. I think I understand. Please continue,” Abigail said sweetly while giving the woman a smile.

“Very well. All you need to do is reach out, I’d suggest with an index finger, and hold your finger against one mote of light then trigger the Ability. If it can be cleansed your mana will drain and the Radiance will slowly eradicate the mote. However, you’ll have to discover each mote's individual meaning since each user of the Ability perceives things differently. A red mote of light could be a cancer to someone, or a curse of vengeance to another. It’s up to the individual Ability user to determine their unique pattern of colors.”

“How can I tell the difference between a mote that signifies cancer and one that signifies a curse?” Abigail asked, a puzzled expression working its way across her face.

“Trial and error. Cleanse a mote and use your other senses to discern any changes,” Izanami responded shortly, a note of frost seeping into her voice for the first time in her conversation with Abigail.

“I understand. Thank you very much for explaining, Lady Izanami,” Abigail replied as she bowed and stepped back to rejoin the others.

Kalvin waited to make sure their conversation was over before leaning over to Abigail.

“When the next wave of monsters appears, will you try and take care of one or two of them with your sword?”

“I... Yes… It’ll be an excellent opportunity to reacquaint myself with the weapon, and I want to know if the monsters have any points that could be cleansed,” Abigail replied calmly.

“Uh guys? Could I join you?” A nervous Jeremy asked, and he stepped forward, his head down, his eyes shining with hope.

Kalvin glanced over to Abigail and down to the sword she was swinging through the air. Her cuts were slowly becoming smoother, and her body was flowing with the sword. With each swing she was getting used to the weapon. Then he looked back at Jeremy and watched the man’s trembling, clenched fists, and shivering arms.

“Abigail, if I held the middle and left of the entrance, could you hold the right? With Jeremy on your right flank to support you?” He asked after appraising them both.

Abigail paused her practicing to glance at Jeremy. “Yeah, I can make that work.”

Kalvin was about to thank Abigail and discuss a strategy for the fight when he felt a chill run down his spine. The energy he’d woven through his body fluctuated beneath his skin, and his hair stood on end. He knew what it meant and instead of thanking Abigail or reassuring Jeremy; he turned towards the entrance and walked towards the oncoming monsters.

Chapter 39

For Kalvin, this fight should have been simple, yet it was one of his most nerve-wracking experiences so far. He needed the others to do well, to defend the graveyard while he explored the outside world, so while he occasionally dealt deadly single strikes to the monsters that approached him and his area, his real focus was on watching over Abigail and Jeremy.

Abigail’s movements were even more refined than in the past. She wielded the short sword with one hand, keeping her other hand tucked behind her, and keeping her body twisted so only a side profile was available to the attacking monsters. Unlike Kalvin’s straightforward and direct attacks, Abigail never traded blows or tried to engage the monsters. She danced away from their claws, dodging any attempt at even scratching her, and only striking when the monsters had overextended. Her counterattacks comprised quick, short slashes, or precise thrusts designed to kill or maim the monster.

As Kalvin dispatched the last of the half dozen monsters in his area, his gaze drifted behind Abigail to someone who was having a bit of a harder time. Jeremy stood facing a single undead goblin. His fists were no longer wreathed in flames. Only a faint orange glow remained, while his chest heaved, each breath seemed to come with difficulty, and bloody ribbons covered his front. Yet the man’s eyes still shone with exuberance and his lips were still pulled into a radiant smile.

The single Lesser Ravenous Ghoul he’d been facing currently lay on the ground, its arms, chest, and head covered in superficial, but painful burn marks. Jeremy’s fists had clearly pummeled the small, resilient monster, yet he had failed to finish his single enemy in the time it had taken Abigail to dispatch a pair and for Kalvin to wipe out the rest of the entire wave. As the orange glow faded from Jeremy’s fists, he let out a roar and leapt forward, stomping his heel down onto the small monster’s chest and finally killing it.

Kalvin and Abigail shared a look as Jeremy stood atop the monster. Both of them held their tongues, mutually agreeing to give the young man a post-battle moment of silence to catch his breath. Kalvin struggled to remember the words his grandfather had told him when he’d first taken him hunting. Those reassurances might have helped Jeremy process his first kill, yet before he could find the words, they were proved wholly unnecessary.

“YES! Did you see that? That was fucking AWESOME!” Jeremy cheered as he raised his arms and ran around in a circle.

As the sight of the joyous young man celebrating in the middle of a graveyard filled with bodies sank in, Kalvin had to hold back a laugh. Abigail and Kalvin shared a brief smile while the other non-combatants watched in confusion, unaware of what the young man’s body was going through. Fear and terror fueled by adrenaline were a powerful combination, overcoming that to fight back against a literal monster was an important moment for the young man, and something they’d have to learn for themselves.

When Jeremy’s celebrations came to a close, Kalvin gestured for the others.

“Come here.”

Sean and Leon immediately walked over to the combatants while Tasha stood in place and glared at him, her arms once more crossed over her chest.

“I don’t take orders from you,” Tasha said smartly.

Kalvin ignored her and crouched down beside one ghoul before speaking. “Now that you are all here, watch closely. I’m about to show you how to level up, gain new Abilities, and become stronger.”

Tasha’s arms dropped, and she sprinted to join the group so fast that several members of their small group let out soft chuckles. Each of their laughs was rewarded with Tasha’s signature glare and by the time they’d settled down, Kalvin’s claw had cut into the monster’s chest. He’d done this same repetitive motion nearly a hundred times now, but for the first demonstration to the others, he went slow, letting a single claw carve open the monster's flesh.

When a gaping hole was created, he glanced around to make sure the others were watching. Everyone was glued to the dissection, and only Sean was slightly distracted. He wore a queasy expression and occasionally glanced away from the gory display, but despite his obvious discomfort, the man remained fixed in place as Kalvin plunged his hand into the monster’s chest and fished out a small red gem the size of a fingernail.

“This is a monster's core. Every monster that I know of has a core, typically located where their heart should be. When we take the core out and consume it,” Kalvin paused his explanation to wipe the core clean and toss it into his mouth before continuing. “The experience percentage on your System screen will rise. When that number reaches 100% you’ll receive a pop up asking you about what you’d like to upgrade.”

Kalvin spent the next few minutes explaining the different upgrades, relaying them the information he’d uncovered through his various lives, and from pestering Izanami with his questions. When he was finished, Kalvin stood up and gestured towards the field of monster corpses.

“Each of us only needs a few to level up the first time, but the number of cores you need to consume will increase with each level up. So for now, we should disperse them until everyone hits level 3 at a minimum.”

The second Kalvin finished speaking, Leon immediately raised his hand, waving it in the air frantically.

“Leon, you don’t need to raise your hand to ask me a question,” Kalvin said.

“Oh. Uhm, well I’ll keep that in mind, but uhm… do we,” Leon pointed to himself, Sean, and Tasha before continuing, “get monster cores even if we didn’t help in the last wave?”

Kalvin nodded yes in response, then upon seeing the trio’s skeptical looks, he let out a tired sigh. “It’s better for each of us to have a wide variety of Abilities. Giving everyone a chance to learn something useful increases the odds of our survival as a whole.”

“Oh!” Jeremy said, as his hand shot up into the air.

Kalvin let out a second sigh and called on the younger man. “Yes Jeremy? And again, none of you need to raise your hand to ask me questions.

“If we spread out the experience equally like that, rather than focus it on a single target or smaller group, it’ll give us a higher net average level. Like in an MMORPG, it’s often better to have 5 players who are all level 5 than one player who is level 8,” Jeremy said rapidly.

Kalvin scratched his chin, not sure the comparisons between a video game and their very real nightmare scenario were helpful. Yet the trio seemed to accept Jeremy’s explanation, as even Tasha’s head was nodding in agreement. Suppressing his rebuttal, Kalvin gestured to the surrounding bodies. “Alright. If you understand, let’s get harvesting.”

Chapter 40

Eager for the promised level up, the others fell upon the corpses like locusts on a field of grain. This left Kalvin and Abigail as the only people still standing.

“Aren’t you going to level up?” Kalvin asked curiously.

“I am, but first… We need to do something about your outfit. We can’t have that hospital gown fluttering around while you are fighting,” Abigail said as she walked back into the graveyard.

“Uh, I uh… It’s not like it was by choice. I was in the hospital before being brought here,” Kalvin said in his defense while his cheeks blushed.

“Obviously. Your condition and attire gave everyone that conclusion. Now back to the matter at hand, what size pants do you wear?” Abigail asked as she crouched near one survivor Thames had slain.

“Uh… I’m not sure. I’ve lost a bit of weight recently,” Kalvin replied numbly as he watched Abigail strip a nearby corpse of their pants.

Abigail stood and tossed several pairs of pants at Kalvin. “Alright. One of those should fit you. Go behind the mausoleum and try them on.”

Kalvin considered rejecting Abigail. Wearing the dead’s clothes didn’t exactly feel respectful, but she had a point. It was probably better than having the gown whirling up as he fought monsters. It only took him a few minutes to try on all three pairs of pants before settling on a simple black pair of jeans that might hold up to some shallow strikes from the ghouls.

With his bottom half now securely covered, Kalvin rejoined the others, hoping to see a mound of cores waiting, only to discover another problem. Without his claws or Abigail’s sword, the others had just been slamming rocks against the monster's chest to try and force them open. Together, the quartet of survivors had made a complete mess of a goblin corpse and completely covered themselves in gore for a grand total of 1 red core.

Kalvin said nothing, merely knelt down by the closest body and began the extraction process. He tried to think positively, pushing away any negative thoughts that arose because of other people’s slowness. Who knows, maybe they’ll get an Ability that helps them harvest cores faster. The one saving grace was Abigail. She knelt beside him and immediately cut into the monsters with a cold efficiency that nearly rivaled his own.

Together they harvested the cores till a small pile was formed. It became apparent though that they didn’t have enough for everyone. Not enough monsters had appeared yet, so Kalvin kept the excess and made three piles of four cores.

“It should take four cores of this size to level up. We only have enough for three people right now,” he said as he gestured down to the small piles. “So, who wants to go first?”

Jeremy and Tasha stepped forward almost immediately, with Leon inching to stand beside them slightly after.

“Hold out your hands.”

Once their hands were extended, Kalvin gave each of them four cores and a word of advice.

“I’d recommend cleaning the cores on your shirt before eating them. Ghoul blood isn’t exactly the tastiest condiment.”

“Gee, thanks,” Tasha mocked sardonically before shoveling all four into her mouth and swallowing in one motion.

Leon and Jeremy took Kalvin’s advice, each of them wiping the cores clean on their shirts before popping them into their mouths and swallowing them like a pill. Soon enough, all three of them were staring off into the space before them. Not long after, each of them lifted a finger and pressed it through the air in front of them, locking in their choices. The first to reveal his new Ability, was predictably Jeremy.

“This is so cool!” The young man shouted as a floating ball of fire orbited around his head. Before Kalvin could ask him any questions about the Ability, Jeremy poked his finger into the small orb of fire and two things happened. First, Jeremy screamed in a high-pitched voice before yanking his finger back, and second, the ball of fire exploded in a small nova blast around where his finger had made contact.

“OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! It burns!” Jeremy exclaimed as he jumped around and waved his finger frantically in the air.

Tasha rolled her eyes at Jeremy’s antics. “Oh stop being such a big baby and let me see your hand.” 

Once Jeremy had placed his hand in hers, Tasha continued to speak. “You are lucky I got this Ability. Otherwise you’d still be dancing around with a fucked up finger.”

A warm green light drifted up from the ground, snaking up Tasha’s leggings, over her t-shirt and shoulders, then coiling slowly down her arm and hand, where it wrapped around Jeremy’s injured finger and obscured Kalvin’s vision with an emerald cocoon.

The light faded after a few breaths and the small cocoon unraveled to reveal a fresh, pink, fully healed finger.

“Wicked! We have a healer finally!” Jeremy said as he wrapped Tasha in a large hug.

Tasha grunted and tried to extract herself from the hug, but Kalvin saw a slight smile flicker across her face before she pushed away from Jeremy.

“Come on man! You are covered in monster guts. Ugh, gross. It’s going to take forever to get this out,” Tasha muttered as she spun around to face away from Jeremy, hiding her expression.

Kalvin wore a slight smile of his own as he turned away from the pair, his gaze settling on Leon. “And you? What Ability did you receive?”

Leon’s unfortunate response immediately brought the eyes of the entire group off Jeremy and Tasha, and onto a nervous Leon. “Uh well… I uh… I pressed the wrong button.”

Chapter 41

After Leon’s mistake and subsequent berating by Tasha and Jeremy, the group fell into an uneasy silence. The tense atmosphere caused Kalvin to once again understand just how difficult it was to take individuals and form them into a useful group. Unsure of what to say to Leon, or if he should tell Tasha and Jeremy to knock it off, he turned away from them and spoke to Sean and Abigail.

“It’ll be our turn next. Please make sure to choose Active when the upgrade option appears.”

When neither immediately responded, Kalvin fixed Sean with a hard stare that prompted the man to shrink away from him while slowly nodding. Just as he was about to ask Abigail if she’d heard him she finally replied.

“I’ll make sure to choose whatever gives me the best chance at survival. It’d be a shame to die here.”

With his concerns met for now and a mounting frustration at how slow things had become now that he had to take care of the others, Kalvin slipped away from the group and moved to stand at the entrance of the graveyard. A few seconds of peace and quiet, turned into a few minutes, and then longer as he tried to ignore the cemetery behind him.

He stared out into the wall of fog that prevented him from seeing further than a few feet beyond the graveyard. Small shifts within the fog, curling motions of vapor, or tendrils of mist that crawled across the ground, soaked up his tension and allowed his mind to wander. 

How many lives has it been now, Ten? Twenty? Or more? How many lives would it take for him to escape this place. It hadn’t quite started to feel routine, waking up in a grave, watching everyone else get slaughtered, fighting endless hordes of monsters, and dying. Alright, well, maybe dying was starting to feel a little boring. It was refreshing to actually die and not come back to life in a hospital bed with a tube down his throat though. Plus, being fed through a tube had meant that he didn’t need to taste the terrible hospital food anymore.

Kalvin let out a dry laugh at the morbid memory. His right hand lifted and his fingers brushed across his throat as he remembered the feeling of the plastic tubing.

“What’s so funny?”

Gray mist pulsed out of his fingertips and formed into sharpened claws at the sudden intrusion. Kalvin whirled around to find Abigail just behind him, her curious gaze drifting down to his claws.

“I was thinking about what it felt like to have a plastic tube shoved down my throat and how that might be preferable to this,” Kalvin explained while frowning at Abigail’s sudden interruption.

“That’s funny to you?” Abigail asked curiously as she moved to stand beside him.

“I think sometimes explaining the joke causes it to lose some of its humor,” Kalvin answered as he dismissed his claws and drew the energy back into his body.

“How do you do that?”

“Do what?” He asked as he turned to stare out at the mists once more.

“Control those claws so easily, and make something from nothing. I saw what you did to that man earlier. I found your needle in the back of his neck. How did you do it? Don’t tell me that you woke up, instantly knew how to access your status screen, wield your power, and performed such a precise kill within the first few minutes of arriving here.”

Kalvin opened his mouth to deny everything, already formulating an excuse, but Abigail spoke again before he could defend himself.

“Jeremy’s power sounds a lot more combat focused than yours, yet he can barely heat a piece of toast with those flaming fists of his. Your  ‘energy manipulation’ Ability lets you make all kinds of weapons, and use them at a distance. Hell, you almost just stabbed me with a claw that came from nowhere. That was a reflexive action. Something else is going on…” Abigail paused and glanced back to the others, taking a step closer and dropping her voice to a whisper. “Look, I haven’t told anyone else about what you did to that murderer, and I’ve kept your secret about your Abilities. I won’t rat you out, but I need to know what's really going on and if you are really going to help us get out of here.”

Kalvin let the excuses he’d be saving slip away. I could tell her the truth. It really doesn’t matter if she just forgets in the next life. The next thought was how to tell her. So much had happened that he could sit here for the next five waves and not have enough time to tell her about everything. Finally Kalvin realized that the simplest answer was the best.

“It’s a time loop.”

“What?”

“The floor is a time loop. Every time I die here I wake up back in that grave. It’s why I know the answers to some things, and why I can use my originally useless Ability so well,” Kalvin answered, not mentioning that Thames was also stuck in the same loop.

“I see…” Abigail said slowly, her eyes looking Kalvin up and down once more, as if truly seeing him for the first time. Her finger lightly tapped against her lips as her eyes grew pensive. When she finally spoke again it was in a soft, calm tone. “Well.. If I assume you aren’t crazy, how many times have you gone through the time loop?”

“A dozen? Maybe twenty? Maybe a few more. The lives that are the same have started to blur together and my memory of those lives grows hazy. The first few lives were just spent trying to survive the initial waves of monsters.” 

It was Kalvin’s turn to be surprised then as Abigail suddenly broke into a laughing fit, nearly doubling over as she held her stomach and tried to suppress the abrupt laughter.

“What’s so funny?”

“It’s just… It’s just all this time. Nearly twenty lives, who knows how many hours or days, and you never thought to put on a pair of pants?”

Chapter 42

Kalvin scowled at Abigail, his lips pulling into a frown and his arms crossing over his chest. “I had other more important things to worry about. Putting on a dead man’s pants wasn’t exactly a high priority compared to surviving the monster waves.”

“Is this the first time you’ve put on pants in all those lives?” Abigail asked between laughs.

Kalvin grunted an affirmative, before turning away and gesturing towards the approaching monsters.

“The waves are almost here. How about you stop focusing on my pants and instead focus on surviving?”

“Fine, fine. I’ll stop asking about your lack of attire. In exchange though, tell me what should we expect from the monster waves. Do they ever stop? Will more monsters come? Will it always be these little undead cretins? What’s waiting for us out there?” Abigail asked in a more serious tone as she brought her sword up to a guarded position.

“Their numbers will increase slowly. With every wave, more will come till finally new types of monsters that are stronger and more cunning attack. If we ever let them get past us to attack Izanami, we all die and I wake up back in my grave. As for what's waiting beyond the graveyard, let’s survive this wave first.” Kalvin finished speaking and stalked forward, onto the dirt path just outside the gates of the cemetery. Gray mist slowly wrapped around his fists as the monsters spotted him and charged.

The monster’s numbers had increased again, but Kalvin saw none of the long-tongued freaks amongst the wave. He stepped to the left of the gate, covering half of the entrance and gave Abigail plenty of space to swing her sword. That was all the time they had left for preparation though as the first few monsters leapt through the air, claws extended and jaws open, ready to devour the pair of tasty humans who stood before them.

Kalvin’s claws tore out the throat of the first goblin. His right foot kicked into the chest of the second, crushing its ribcage and sending it flying. He moved forward then, walking into the horde of lesser ghouls. With both claws fully extended and the energy of death pulsing through him at full speed, he scythed through the monsters. Each stroke of his gray steel blades severed a limb or pierced something vital. The entire fight took less than a minute, and when Kalvin finally broke out of his battle trance, he found himself uninjured and surrounded by dead ghouls.

Abigail finished her own fight a few seconds after him, chopping the head off a downed, screeching goblin in order to silence it. Kalvin and Abigail shared a smile as the adrenaline faded. Abigail’s lips parted and she was about to say something when a whining shout ruined the moment.

“Why didn’t you wait for me?”

Jeremy jogged to stand beside the pair.

Kalvin held back his initial sharp response, only giving the young man a nod before turning away to harvest the monsters. Abigail had spotted the same thing as Kalvin and was far less tactful in her handling of Jeremy.

“We didn’t wait for you because you were too busy hiding with the others,” Abigail said scornfully as she pointed towards the group of non-combatants around the mausoleum.

“I-uh, I… I’m sorry. I saw the monsters and… just froze in place. I know I should have been up here helping, but… I don’t know, I’m sorry.” Jeremy’s head dropped as he spoke, his voice quivering as he apologized.

Kalvin looked up from polishing a fresh core as Jeremy finished. Abigail’s expression had softened, and it was clear she didn’t know what to say to the younger man. With a low grunt, Kalvin stood and stretched out his hand, now holding the three cores from earlier and the freshly polished core.

“Take these to Sean, then come back and help us.”  Once he’d taken the cores and walked away, Kalvin called after Jeremy. “Next time, fight with us. The only way to overcome that weight in your mind, the feeling of fear or guilt, is to confront the source.”

Jeremy said nothing in response, but Kalvin saw his shoulder tense and his head lift as he walked back to the others.

“What was that about?” Abigail asked as she knelt beside Kalvin and began using her sword to carve out the monster cores.

Kalvin shrugged and dragged another monster corpse over. “It's probably his first time being in a real fight, let alone a life or death fight with a monster. I’m not surprised that he reacted like that. I’m honestly more surprised that you can stay so calm throughout everything.”

Abigail didn’t reply and for a few minutes, the pair worked through the monster carcasses, harvesting them in silence. Till finally she pulled the sword free of the most recent harvest and used a rag to slowly wipe the blade clean. As she worked the rag down the edge of the blade with her eyes gazing off into the mists beyond, Abigail explained.

“It’s not as exciting as being stuck inside a time loop or anything, nor is it as crazy as whatever is going on with your weird body, but… I guess it would be easier to start from the beginning. How long do we have till the next wave shows up?”

“Maybe ten minutes. Fifteen if we are lucky,” Kalvin answered as he let his claws dissipate and turned to listen to Abigail.

“Alright. We should have enough time, so buckle up, buttercup. Let me tell you about the Alstrom family and how they died.”

Chapter 43

Abigail let out a deep sigh and took in a deep breath, as if steeling herself for what she was to say next. “My father was into HEMA, Historical European Martial Arts, so when the monsters appeared in the streets and the military announced guns were ineffective, he was one of the first to try cold steel. It was not because he was the foolish, heroic type though. It was because that monster, an A-class Saurian, had crashed into our house that same day. It crushed my mother and baby brother beneath its feet like they were ants. My warm father disappeared then. It was like a machine had replaced him from that moment on.”

Abigail let out a longer sigh, her shoulders slumping as her eyes grew distant. Kalvin held his breath, and brought a finger to his lips for the returning Jeremy, gesturing for silence so Abigail could continue.

“He took three swords from his workshop and, without a word, chased after the Saurian. When he didn’t return that night, I went to stay with the neighbors and watched his battle on TV. He was hailed as our country’s hero for injuring and driving off the Saurian. Her Majesty even presented him with the silver cross. I was happy for my father, but it didn’t make me miss my mother or brother less. When my stay at the neighbors stretched from a day, to a week, and then a month, it became clear my father, even if he hadn’t died that day, was gone.”

Abigail’s face was stony and cold as she finished speaking. Kalvin watched as she blinked repeatedly, keeping her misty eyes at bay. Her story had made him remember his own, and how his grandfather and grandmother had fared against the monsters on that first day.

“I’m sorry for your loss,” he whispered.

“If you… want my assistance in the future and need me to believe you, my neighbor's name was Stacy and my brother's name was Bruce. If you tell me their names in a future time loop, there is a good chance, I would believe your ridiculous tale,” Abigail said as she turned away and wiped her sleeve over her face.

“Alright,” Kalvin replied with an amused smile, understanding that her words meant she didn’t quite believe his story.

Jeremy chose that moment to insert himself into the conversation. “I’ve seen your father. I saw him fight on the Thames during the second monster surge. He was crazy strong! I uh… I’m sorry about what happened, though.”

Abigail nodded at Jeremy’s words and leaned forward to scoop up four of the monster cores on the ground before turning to Kalvin. “Is it our turn now?”

Sensing Abigail wanted out of the conversation, Kalvin nodded and scooped up his share of cores. He swallowed all four in one smooth motion and was just about to select an option when Jeremy’s words caught his attention.

“Oh right! I was gonna tell you about Sean’s new Ability!”

Kalvin and Abigail both paused and turned to Jeremy, waiting for the young man to continue.

“So uh, it’s well… It’s not great,” Jeremy said with a shrug. “It’s called uh, Demeter’s Cellar. When he activated it, a poisonous potato appeared in his hand."

“I see,” Kalvin said with a frown, his mind turning towards ways to poison an undead monster and possibly get some use out of the new Ability. Perhaps if he were to feed the potato to someone, and they were later consumed by the ghouls, it would affect them? Maybe if he—

“Kalvin,” Abigail called curiously.

He twisted back around to stare at Abigail, who was intensely gazing at the space in front of her.

“Yes?” He answered with some trepidation, curious what kind of Ability had she gotten that she was so intent on reading, only to be blindsided by her following words.

“Have you ever selected Random?”

“No? I normally only get like 8 attempts and I’d rather spend them on something useful,” Kalvin replied.

“Huh, that’s a waste.”

“What do you mean?” Kalvin asked, glancing at his Upgrade screen and letting his eyes linger on the Random option.

“Well, if what you said is true. Couldn’t you choose Random every time until you win the lottery, and get the best possible Abilities? Before you leave here, when you figure everything out, make sure you choose Random to get the best possible configuration of Abilities,” Abigail explained.

Kalvin nodded slowly as he considered Abigail’s words while eyeing the Upgrade screen. What she said had merit, with his mana so low he couldn’t cast most of the Abilities he was receiving anyway. So with some trepidation, Kalvin tapped his finger against Random and waited to see what changed on his screen.

Random Selected!

Are you sure you wish the Climber System to randomly assign you an Upgrade?

Y/N

System note: The System will not be held accountable for any unforeseen consequences caused by selecting Random, nor will it issue any refunds.

Kalvin paused at the System’s warning. Did it really not want people to select random? None of the other options had similar deterrents. He considered for a moment before pressing Y. While he had hoped for some amazing, mythical Ability, the actual results on the screen before him were… underwhelming.

Health +2

The thing he’d needed the least in the last few lives as his first Random pull. With a disappointed sigh, he dismissed the page and glanced over to Abigail, hopeful that she got something better.

“Anything useful?”

Abigail, rather than reply, brought her sword up to a ready position, wielding it with one hand while tapping at the air before her with her free hand. Almost immediately, a golden light sprang into existence along the edge of her blade. She worked through a routine, going slower than before as if testing the new blade and how it cut through the air.

Kalvin, recognizing her desire to test the new Ability out, much like he’d done with Boneshaping, stepped back and let her experiment. When she was finally finished a few minutes later Abigail, let the sword sag in her hand as she answered his question.

“It’s called the Radiant Crescent. As far as I can tell it just adds Radiant Damage to the blade, without changing its weight or edge. I’ll have to test it in actual combat first, though.”

“T-that’s awesome! Another combat Ability!” Jeremy said excitedly.

“It is helpful. Looks like your wish has been granted Abigail. Here comes some guinea pigs for you to test out that blade,” Kalvin said as he gestured to the approaching monster wave.

Chapter 44

With no Diegheist appearing in this wave, the fight was once again routine for Kalvin. His gaze drifted over to Jeremy and Abigail to watch their fights. Abigail was doing even better than before, not because of some new magical power, but because her practice and comfort with the blade had clearly grown. Her movements were beyond fluid, leaning more towards gracefulness. Her feet slid across the earth as if she was waltzing. Each slash of her blade ended the life of a ghoul.

By comparison, the best Kalvin could say about Jeremy’s fighting style was that it played to his strengths. Jeremy fought as if his feet were frozen to the ground and his body were encased in stone. The only moving parts of him were his fists and arms, the warm orange flames wrapped around each fist as he punched wildly at any of the monsters that came within range.

Jeremy’s fists still only left minor burn marks, but the impact knocked away the smaller ghouls and injured them. This kept the monsters from getting past him to the non-combatants behind their defensive line. The entire fight took ‌a minute, and Kalvin felt… unfulfilled. There had been adrenaline coursing through him the first few times he’d fought these things. Now though, it was routine, and he was stuck babysitting. With a long sigh, he knelt down and harvested monster cores as Jeremy struggled to take down the only remaining ghoul.

Abigail stood beside Jeremy, her blade pulsing with the golden radiance of her Ability as she watched over the young man. When he finally landed a solid right hook on the creature's temple and it toppled over to the ground, Abigail dismissed the radiance from her blade and knelt to harvest besides Kalvin.

“How was it?” He asked as he stacked another core on top of a growing small mound.

“How was what? The Ability? It was fine. Just… unnecessary. The blade already cuts well enough. Maybe if we were facing something tough…” Abigail answered, her voice trailing off as she realized something and turned to glance over at Kalvin, before dropping her volume to a whisper. “Do you know what we’ll be fighting next?”

Kalvin nodded sagely before gesturing down to a ghoul pointing at its limbs and mouth. “I know the next monster, intimately. It’s like a cross between a ghoul and a human, with human limbs that are far too long for its small ghoulish body. Its primary weapon is its tongue which is like a frog or a snake. The tip of the tongue is dangerously sharp and can pierce through bone. Unlike the shrieking little ghouls, they are mostly silent, and seem to prefer quick, clean kills when possible.”

“Well… Fuck. Any good news?” Abigail asked with a note of exasperation.

“They have a weakness,” Kalvin said plainly, making sure Abigail watched as he pulled on the ghoul’s jaw and gestured to the back of its throat. “The area around and behind its tongue seems to be the most vulnerable part of a Diegheist. Any damage there seems to kill them nearly instantly.”

“That’s… going to be difficult, but not impossible. I’m not sure my Radiant Crescent will help with that,” Abigail replied thoughtfully.

“Well, how about your Lesser Cleansing of Radiance?” Kalvin asked after a moment.

“You want me to cleanse them?”

“No, I mean, you said it lets you see motes of light in different creatures and items, correct? Perhaps use your Abilities' sight to detect a weak spot?”

Abigail nodded and tapped at the air in front of her twice, before sweeping her gaze across the cemetery. 

“There are motes of light everywhere, on everything, and each of them is a different color. It’s a bit disorientating if I’m being honest. I’m not sure it’s something I’d want to have active during combat,” she explained hesitantly.

“Have you identified what any of the colors signify, like Izanami recommended?”

Abigail glanced away from Kalvin and her head drifted down as she murmured her answer. “no.”

“Well, now’s the perfect time to practice fighting with the Ability active. You can spar between the waves and learn what the colors mean at the same time.”

“What? We are going to spar? I don’t t-think,” Abigail said shakily as she stepped back, moving away from Kalvin as her eyes traced over his skeletal left side. “I don’t think that's a good idea. W-we should conserve our energy.”

Kalvin winced slightly as he saw where her eyes landed and was reminded of his first few encounters with the woman. He shook his head, suppressing his annoyance for the umpteenth time this life as he turned and gestured towards Abigail’s sparring partner.

“No, I’d like you to spar with Jeremy and help him get used to moving his body while fighting.”

Abigail followed Kalvin’s gesture and together they took in the still panting, slumped over Jeremy, who was wiping sweat from his forehead as he stared down at the two ghouls he’d barely defeated in the last wave.

“Alright. I can do that. I’ll whip him into shape in no time,” Abigail said confidently as she stepped towards Jeremy.

“No, no. I’ll help correct his movements and try to get him thinking about his footwork. You focus on keeping your Ability up, while sparring, and try to figure out what those motes mean,” Kalvin said as he gathered up the cores they’d harvested and moved to follow behind a suddenly, much more hesitant Abigail.

“Fine. Fine. Fine,” Abigail muttered as they approached Jeremy.

Chapter 45

Initially Jeremy responded to the offer of sparring eagerly, but even with motes of light disorientating her, the gap between himself and Abigail was apparent. After a few rounds of sparring and Jeremy gaining a few additional bruises, Kalvin called a halt to the arrangement.

“How is it?”

“Still sucks. Every time I move, the world turns into a blur of colors. It’s like… looking through a kaleidoscope constantly,” she replied with a shrug.

“Have you tested out cleansing any of the motes?”

“Well, I’ve seen a few motes appear in Jeremy as we sparred, but… I’d rather not test my Ability on one of us until we know more about it. I was thinking maybe… We could keep one ghoul from the next wave alive and I use my Ability on it?” 

Kalvin winced at her suggestion. The implications of keeping a ghoul alive as a test subject drew an uncomfortable parallel to his own forced hospitalization. Being strapped down and having an unknown liquid pumped into him, or forced to undergo surgeries he never consented to haunted him. A shudder ran down his spine and a finger traced over one scar on his right side before he broke free from the memories.

“Is there any other way to test your Ability?” He asked slowly.

“I’d be okay if you, ah, used it, uh, on me,” said a panting Jeremy.

“No.”

“No.”

Abigail and Kalvin said in unison. Kalvin caught a glimmer of something cold in Abigail’s eyes though, as she dismissed Jeremy’s suggestion and turned to look at him instead. Her eyes ran over his skeletal left side, clearly taking in the tattered hospital gown, and scarred flesh. He watched her expression change, her brows furrowing, her lips shifting from side to side, and the tapping of her along the hilt of her sword as she considered something.

Kalvin stood and waited. When Abigail finally did speak, it wasn’t to him at first though. Instead she reached over and plucked the cores from his hand, counting out twelve of them before calling for Jeremy.

“Jeremy, take these to the others. If they get any useful Abilities, come back and let us know, okay?” She said as she pressed the gleaming red cores against Jeremy’s sweaty palm.

Jeremy wrapped his hand around the cores and cradled them against his chest before nodding to Abigail and rushing off to the others, who were still crowded around the mausoleum. Once he was out of earshot Abigail turned to Kalvin. “If what you say is true, would it be alright if I tested out Lesser Cleansing of Radiance on you?”

Kalvin let out an audible groan at the suggestion, failing to suppress his instinctive reaction for once. He opened his mouth to refuse Abigail’s ludicrous proposal, only to pause as a thought struck him.

“What color motes do I have?” He said curiously.

“Uh…” Abigail paused and tapped the air in front of her to activate her Ability before glancing over Kalvin’s body slowly. “Mostly gray, black, and green, but there are a lot of other colors, too. Why?”

“Well… If you tell me what color you are cleansing, I can remember for the next time and help you save time in the future.” 

“That would definitely make things faster, kind of like a color library. You could tell me what things mean or at the very least help me know what not to try,” Abigail said as she nodded sagely.

“Just… Start slow okay? Maybe start with a small color somewhere not important?” 

“Oh, you poor thing. Don’t worry. I’ll be gentle since it’s your first time,” Abigail said with a wink and a laugh as she stepped closer to Kalvin.

Kalvin rolled his eyes. “So what do you need me to do?”

“Well, for starters, you could stop asking me questions that I don’t know the answers to. I’m still new to this whole Ability thing after all. And second, you could pick a side. Do you want me to start on the left side or right side?”

Kalvin grimaced and extended his right arm, choosing to ignore Abigail’s attitude. “So what colors do you see?”

“A lot honestly. Here, it’s mostly shades of purple, pink, and white. Maybe more like beige or eggshell colors? You know those samples of paint you find? It’s like looking at a wall of them all packed into your hand,” Abigail explained as she bent forward, placing her face so close to his outstretched hand that he felt her breath upon his skin.

“So just pick one at random?”

“And if it’s something important, like an emotion? Or what if it’s your sense of touch or something weird and magical?” Abigail asked skeptically.

“I’ll come back to life and tell you about it,” Kalvin answered stoically.

“Fine. We’ll start with a fuchsia pink node. Right… here,” Abigail said as she tapped at her screen, before pressing her fingers to Kalvin’s wrist.

Almost immediately, a searing pain shot through Kalvin’s veins, his face scrunched up for a moment as he tried and failed to suppress the overwhelming agony. A guttural scream tore its way out of his lungs and into the graveyard as he ripped away his hand from Abigail in a desperate attempt to stop the pain. Despite feeling like he had just shoved his hand into an oven that was the same temperature as the sun, Kalvin’s right hand was healthy, and unblemished when he pulled it free from Abigail’s.

Just as quickly as the pain came, it vanished. Removing Abigail's touch from his skin had seemingly removed the scorching sensation, and returned Kalvin’s hand to normal. A deep breath tore out of his lungs as he slumped to the ground, resting his back against a tombstone as he attempted to control himself once more and reform his mental concentration. Abigail hovered nearby, worry clear on her face, but she said nothing, waiting until Kalvin calmed down and looked back up before her questions burst out.

“Are you okay? What happened? What did it cleanse? How did it feel?”

Kalvin shrugged and took another deep breath. “I’m fine. It just hurts… a lot… Imagine shoving your hand into the sun and then you’ll understand how it felt. As for what it cleansed? No idea. Is the mote of light gone?”

Abigail crouched beside him and stared down at his right hand, being careful not to touch it as she tapped at the screen before her.

“Yeah, the fuchsia mote on your wrist is totally gone. Does anything feel different?”

Kalvin shrugged, flexing his hand, slowly rolling his wrist, and wiggling his fingers, trying to understand what had changed. A few minutes passed with Jeremy eventually returning and standing there silently as Kalvin and Abigail gazed at Kalvin’s right hand.

Finally he spoke, a note of defeat in his voice. “I can’t tell if anything has changed. We might need to do it again.”

“Are you sure?” Abigail asked in surprise, her face twisting into an expression of horror. “What about the pain? Didn’t you say it was like shoving your hand into an inferno?”

Kalvin shrugged as he slowly pushed off the tombstone to stand. “Pain is temporary. It’s more important that we understand your Ability.”

“Uh… guys? I don't think we have time for that.”

Kalvin twisted around to stare at Jeremy upon hearing the terror in his voice, only to find something he’d never seen before. It was a sight that instantly brought his pulse pounding and heart beating to the front of his ears as adrenaline coursed through him. His priorities changed then. Experimenting with Abigail’s power, teaching Jeremy to fight, or even reaching the village didn’t matter anymore. Only surviving the next few minutes mattered.

Chapter 46

For the first time, the mists beyond the graveyard had cleared and Kalvin almost wished they hadn’t. In the distant north, only the steeple of the church was visible. To the east he could see rolling hills and dark swamp, while to the west lay a large mountain that pierced into the gray clouds above. None of the now revealed scenery could help him stop what was coming. A true horde of monsters was crawling its way across an open plains, directly towards their position. While the previous waves had slowly increased, never reaching more than twenty monsters, this was a true army of darkness. Undead, zombies, specters, and things Kalvin didn’t know the names for covered the ground and bloated out the sky as far as he could see. 

“Is that… normal?” Abigail asked in a trembling voice.

“No. I’ve never seen this happen before. Something must have changed. Someone must have triggered an event or angered the monsters. I don’t think this is supposed to happen. It always felt… winnable someday, but this… It’s impossible,” Kalvin trailed off as he tore his gaze away from the horde and back to Abigail.

"Can we hide? Or run?” Abigail asked frantically.

Kalvin shook his head slowly. “No, if they reach Izanami, we all die anyway. Hiding or running will just shorten the time we have and maybe save us some pain.”

“Well, maybe we can hide Izanami somewhere? Or get her to go back into the mausoleum?” Abigail asked, which prompted the three of them to turn back towards their guide.

The bloody sight behind them clued Kalvin into what could have possibly caused their current situation. Arrayed around the entrance of the mausoleum were the bodies of Sean and Tasha, each of their chests having been torn out. The clear culprit floated beside the pair. Fresh crimson blood now stained the white dress of Izanami and dripped from her long, pearl white claws. A pale blue light shone from beneath her veil as she stood in place. Then Kalvin took in the other survivor, Leon.

There was something different about the young man now. His previously hunched shoulders and timid posture were gone, replaced by a sneer as his eyes filled with a pale blue glow that matched Izanami’s. His gaze turned to meet Kalvin’s, then his lips parted and in a confident voice he said, “Kill them.”

Before Kalvin could reply, Izanami streaked forward, the white and red of her stained wedding dress turning into a striped blur. His left side moved before his mind processed what had just happened. His skeletal left hand had already stretched out. It was wreathed in a dense gray mist of power that accelerated its movements as it swiped away the extended pearl white claws aimed at his chest… or at least tried to.

Kalvin’s mind finally synched with his body as his arm drove down and knocked against Izanami’s attack, only to feel like he’d just struck a steel bar. Still, the instincts of his dead side had saved his life as the claws which had been primed to rip open his chest only tore open a gaping wound on his side. He stepped back, disregarding the horde of monsters approaching from behind in order to deal with the more immediate threat.

Izanami’s follow up attack came just as he pulled his right arm up to a guard position and dragged on his Necrotic energy reserves. He managed to barely swat aside her claws once more and felt his arm throb. A bruise was already forming from just that small temporary contact. He knew then that her seemingly frail form was so overwhelmingly powerful that he would have to restart if she landed a single clean blow.

He gathered and condensed the mist between the bones of his left hand, trying to cushion the next impact as he reached out to block a flurry of blows from Izanami. The first, second, and third slash from her claws were dealt with through a series of dodges and parries, but the fourth caught him unaware. He had thrown up a block, knocking away her left arm, only for an audible ‘crack’ to ring out through the graveyard. She forcefully snapped her arm back towards him, twisting into an unnatural, inhuman position in order to launch an underhanded strike at his stomach.

The world froze for a moment as adrenaline pounded through Kalvin’s veins. He watched the deadly claws inch closer and knew he was about to reset. He’d gained so much information, so much progress in this single life, and there was still so much left to gain. At the last possible second, just before Kalvin prepared himself for the taste of dirt, a gray steel blade interposed itself between his chest and the claws, deflecting his oncoming death. 

With Izanami off balance and Abigail now taking some of the pressure, Kalvin found a moment to breathe and refocus his concentration. He forced his mind away from the fight and let his instincts take over. His well-honed reflexes saved his life again and again as he dragged out memory after memory of pain and death, and funneled the power they brought into his left arm. He was shaken from his body's auto-piloted defense by the roar and shriek of the monsters behind them. He’d nearly forgotten about the fact that even if he fought off Izanami they would all soon die to the approaching army of darkness.

Out of time and with his options for this life running out, Kalvin funneled all his remaining energy into one construct, condensing the dark gray mist into a solid black lance around his left arm. He drove his body forward, giving up on defense and letting Izanami’s claws lacerate his shoulder and chest as he pierced the deadly lance into Izanami… Or at least tried too. Once again, a ‘crack’ rang out from Izanami’s body as her body was contorted inhumanly and her arm came up to block the tip of Kalvin’s lance.

The black steel tip pierced through the white gloves that covered Izanami’s arms, revealing gray desiccated flesh beneath briefly before the lance tore through the bone and severed the arm. That was all it did though, as shortly after impact the steel dissipated back into mist and Kalvin’s injured body slumped to the ground in front of Izanami, exhaustion washing over him and weakness returning to his dead left side. 

Slowly Kalvin pushed his right hand against the ground and forced himself to stand, determined to at the very least die on his feet and facing his enemy. He forced himself to keep his eyes open to watch as Izanami’s remaining claws knocked Abigail’s sword aside and cleared a path to finally end his life.

Chapter 47

Abigail dashed forward as Kalvin struggled to stand, her hand still trembling and heavy from the weight of blocking the previous claw strikes. Yet her sword still came up intercepting and deflecting the claws at the last moment. She placed herself between the clearly drained Kalvin and the Guide who’d clearly lost her mind.

“Lady Izanami! Please stop! Tell us what we’ve done wrong!” Abigail pleaded with the implacable woman as she struggled to bring the blade back up into a guard position, her entire arm now trembling with fingers growing numb.

Izanami’s claws swept out, intent on reaching not Abigail, but the clearly drained Kalvin behind her. Abigail had just steeled herself to defend once more when a sudden warmth pulsed from out from her right side, unable to take her gaze off the incoming attack, she could only feel a sudden burst of heat as if a volcano had just erupted beside her. JEREMY! She thought as her mind connected to the fact that he’d been beside Kalvin when Izanami had attacked. She positioned her body to cover where Jeremy had been, in an attempt to keep the inexperienced man away from the deadly foe. only for her to suddenly be forced back as an oppressive wave of heat washed over her side and clouded her vision.

A ball of fire larger than Abigail’s head shot through the air, spinning and sparking as it flew just over Izanami’s shoulder, barely missing her. Abigail let out a low curse as the fireball disappeared into the distance and she heard the familiar ‘thump’ of a body hitting the soft earth of the graveyard from where Jeremy stood. She risked a glance back to see his eyes closed. Blood dripped from his nose and ears, his fists were warped and burned beyond recognition. 

Abigail felt her heart drop in her chest. Her new sparring partner had been a naïve and inexperienced young man, but he hadn’t deserved to be in such a nightmarish scenario. She twisted back to the immediate threat just in time to see the distant fireball that had missed Izanami land on its intended target.

The large orb of flames slammed into Leon, setting him ablaze and instantly melting his flesh while the force of the blast knocked him to the ground. Almost instantly, the blue glow  emanating from beneath Izanami’s veil ceased and the long, sharp claws that were reaching for Abigail’s throat paused. Abigail’s chest tightened then as a powerful pressure suddenly weighed down upon her. A loud shrieking cry came from Izanami as the bride whirled around and soared into the air towards where a weakly flailing Leon was struggling to stand on the ground.

As Izanami came to a halt before the man, the shriek changed into screech filled with mourning and hate. The haunting, shrill sound echoed through the graveyard, calling out for the dead and damned. They came to the call, drifting up from the corpses of monsters, climbers, and those long-buried. Spirits, ghosts, and poltergeists, each of them rose and swirled towards the enraged bride. Her shrill call changed again then, projecting emotions of betrayal and wrath. As like a conductor giving a command to her orchestra, she extended one blood-stained claw towards the target of her fury.

The ghostly apparitions fell upon Leon, disappearing into his smoldering corpse only to emerge from a different place moments later. Each of them held shreds of translucent white paper that fluttered in their fingers. Abigail felt Kalvin stir behind her, straightening and looking around as the spectral beings dropped the scraps of paper before Izanami. Her mouth opened then as the paper floated in the air before their Guide. More paper was added again and again till a small, translucent paper mache replica of Leon floated before her with its eyes closed.

The shrill screech subsided into a soft whimper before fading into nothingness. Then from beneath Izanami’s veil came a voice unlike any Abigail had ever heard, like a nail on a chalkboard combined with the crack of a whip. Only a few words were spoken, yet the spike of pain brought by just the first three was enough that Abigail dropped her sword in order to clap both hands over her ears in horror. Even that wasn’t enough to completely block out the horrific noise.

“I find you guilty of crimes against the Tower of Sheol, and as punishment I condemn your soul to the hunger of the Damned. To let the teeth of the undead, those who are endlessly hungry for life, work their way over the core of your being till your soul is either purified or torn to shreds!”

Abigail felt blood dripping down from her ears by the time Izanami stopped speaking. She watched as with a flick of a finger Izanami plucked Leon's translucent form, his soul, from the space before her and true to her word flicked it under her veil and into her mouth.

As the haunting echo of her initial cry faded from the graveyard, so did the spirits and ghosts she’d brought with it. With a veil of silence now draped over the graveyard and things returning to normal, Abigail’s worries turned behind her. She slipped an arm around Kalvin’s waist, helping to support the still recovering man as she glanced behind them to a frozen army of monsters. They were waiting for something, mouths opened, claws outstretched, and all eyes focused directly on the last two living beings, herself and Kalvin.

Abigail didn’t wait. She didn’t want to find out what was holding back all those monsters, and despite Kalvin’s assurances that this was some kind of time loop, she didn’t want to die. More than that, she didn’t truly believe him. She started walking, dragging Kalvin with her as she moved towards the only shelter she could see in the graveyard, the mausoleum.

Izanami drifted down to float inches from the ground, her veiled face turning and following Abigail. She skirted around Izanami, staying out of the reach of her claws in case the situation changed once again. She pushed Kalvin into the mausoleum, laying his body beside an ornate pedestal and coffin in the center. She stepped back to the front doors and slowly pushed the stone doors closed, trapping them both inside the mausoleum. Darkness settled over the pair and she crept back across the small room, using her hands to feel the edge of the stone coffin as she shuffled to sit down besides Kalvin.

Several minutes passed like that. The darkness and chill of the mausoleum felt like a comforting blanket after the intense battle and the silence, only broken by the soft sound of their breathing, brought some small peace back to Abigail’s mind. The first to speak was Kalvin. His voice came out in a low, rasp.

“Thanks… for bringing me with you.”

Abigail let his words hang in the air, savoring the fleeting quiet. “What was that?”

“What was what?” Kalvin answered groggily.

“Everything! The army of monsters, the Guide going crazy, the ghosts inside the graveyard, you nearly passing out, Leon and Jeremy dying… Tell me what just happened.”

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like that,” Kalvin trailed off mid-sentence. Abigail heard him take a deep breath and as if he was still trying to find the right words then slowly explained what he meant. “That’s not exactly true. Some of it… I could have guessed. The army of monsters… The eyes in the mist have always been there watching and waiting for something, I just… I don’t know what triggered them this time, but I knew they were out there, lurking. It’s the same about me almost passing out. I’ve never used that much power before, and without my power… It’s difficult to move. Hell, running is nearly impossible.”

He paused again as the roaring of the monster army returned. The many footsteps outside sounded like a muffled, distant thunderstorm drifting ever closer. Abigail considered Kalvin’s response, wishing she could see his expression right now, to read what he was feeling.

“There’s nothing we can do about the monsters now, and I wish you had told us more about your power.” She glanced towards the door. “I’m still not sure if I believe you about the whole time loop thing, but I don’t see a way out of this. So tell me, is there anything we can do that will give you, give us in the future, the best chance at survival in the next loop?”

Abigail heard Kalvin move in the darkness, and was surprised when his right hand brushed against her arm. Both horror and respect surged inside her when he explained what he wanted. 

“Use your power on me until the monsters tear down the doors.”

Chapter 48

Kalvin woke to the taste of dirt in his mouth, and for once, he was grateful for it. He brushed his face clean and lay there, relishing in the fact that only his left side ached and complained rather than the searing full body agony Abigail’s Cleansings had caused him. They’d sat in there for god knows how long, learning almost nothing about Abigail’s obscure Ability, with Kalvin suffering the consequences again and again. He’d hoped that perhaps despite the strange circumstances the next life would begin once the monsters consumed the corpses and reached Izanami. Yet those hopes were dashed when the monsters slammed against the stone doors and forced them open. No sooner had a crack opened then several Diegheists and slender lizard-like things poured into the cramped chamber and tore them to shreds. 

With a sigh, Kalvin settled in to listen and wait. What he did in this life would be determined by Thames. Whether the man went mad again and tried to slaughter everyone, or whether he’d tried to play hero again gave him an idea of what to do next. He lay there, waiting with his eyes closed as he tried to think about the last life. It had been one of his shortest lives so far, but more had happened in those scant hours than most of his solo attempts.

It wasn’t long before he heard it. The familiar, soft gasps of a crowd at the sight of a sword descending in a beam of light and soon after Thames’ charismatic voice was drifting down to Kalvin’s resting place. Knowing that Thames wasn’t about to massacre everyone, Kalvin opened his System screen and navigated to his Abilities, only to be surprised by what he found there.

Necrotic Energy Manipulation

Pain Resistance 1

He found the new addition startling. He had experienced nothing in this new life, yet his System had already acquired a new Ability? His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed as he tabbed back to his Status screen, glancing over it to make sure nothing else had changed.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 0%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

Nothing had changed. He’d overheard the others speaking enough to know that most people started with mana and health values around 10, and that his values for those numbers were abnormal, but that was something he’d started with. Flicking through the Achievement and Titles tabs proved fruitless, as nothing else seemed to have changed. Instead of panicking about it or demanding answers from Izanami immediately, Kalvin activated Necrotic Energy Manipulation and settled in to wait for the first few deaths… Except something else had changed and it wasn’t on his System screen.

As he’d activated his Ability he’d immediately sensed something different, something new. A deathly gray energy trickled out from one grave. He reached out with his will, pulling on the energy and slowly dragging it towards his own resting place, letting whatever poor fool had perished already invigorate him.

Did Thames kill someone, and no one noticed? Or has this person always been dead and I just now could notice it? Or has something else changed? Kalvin thought as he rose from his shallow grave, his curiosity getting the best of him as he wiped the dirt off himself and hobbled towards the source of the energy.

He came to a stop over a shallow grave. Rather than a gory crime scene, or a scarred battleground, the grave was undisturbed. When his eyes settled on the tombstone and he read the name engraved there, an icy chill ran down his spine.

Leon S. Harrier

An image of a thousand ghosts tearing out the poor man’s soul flashed through Kalvin’s mind. Kneeling down, he lightly brushed the dirt off the outlined body, revealing Leon’s angular, youthful face. Kalvin’s eyes narrowed as he sat down beside the grave, pondering the final few minutes of his last life. Leon had claimed he’d not gotten an Ability, that he’d pressed the wrong button, but the man’s abrupt shift in personality from naïve, nervous fool to confident murderer showed he was clearly able and willing to deceive them. Kalvin’s thought drifted to the blue glow that had shone from Leon’s eyes and the matching light that had emanated from beneath Izanami’s veil. Considering her angry words of condemnation at the end… Kalvin found it very likely Leon had lied about getting an Ability and upon receiving more cores tried to use some kind of Ability on Izanami.

The mists were clearing from the graveyard as Kalvin reached this conclusion. He turned around to watch Izanami’s entrance. Upon listening to the howling wind that heralded her approach, he realized it wasn’t eerily similar to the haunting echo she’d unleashed into the graveyard to call forth the Damned. The Guide was clearly capable of far more than just answering questions. There was another mystery that piqued Kalvin’s interest though. Why had they not died instantly when they’d attacked Izanami? When the monsters struck her it had been an instant reset, but when Leon used his Ability, or when his lance pierced her, that life had continued. Hell, even when the monsters had reached the Guide, the time loop hadn’t been reset until the monsters had actually killed him.

He watched Izanami float out, her lacy veil, long gloves, and white bridal dress covering every inch of her body. His gaze traced over where he’d injured her or tore her dress during their fight, searching for any sign that something else had changed and finding nothing. When Thames approached Izanami and began to loudly explain her purpose to the already enthralled group of survivors, Kalvin disregarded questioning her about the past life. Instead, he slowly rose and shambled towards the entrance of the graveyard. With Thames playing Hero this life, and with Leon’s death fueling him, Kalvin could finally progress in exploring this level of the Tower.

Chapter 49

Kalvin settled against a tombstone a few feet from the entrance. His gaze scanned the horizon, looking past the red eyes and mists, trying to see the outline of the mountain, the trees of the swamp, or perhaps the slopes of the town's buildings. He waited there consolidating his concentration, trying to build up his mental block around the memories of decay and agony. He finished just as the first wave approached. Thames and a handful of survivors moved forward to defend against the undead goblins.

Kalvin noticed a nervous Jeremy among the few survivors Thames had picked to defend. Behind them near the mausoleum stood the other twenty-ish people amongst them stood familiar faces, like Sean, Abigail, and Tasha. Occasionally Kalvin spotted people he’d seen before, the young teen with the half-shaved head, a lithe woman who’d been one of the last to die in several lives because of her agility and speed, and surprising Kalvin the most, the older woman with blond hair who always demanded to be released and died in the mists. It was odd that she was still alive, but what Kalvin found even stranger was that he could have sworn he'd seen someone from the hospital inside the Tower. Perhaps a nurse, a member of the cleaning staff, or even a guard, yet as he searched the faces in the crowd, he found none.

His headache returned then, like a lance of pain stabbing through his brain, Kalvin tore his eyes away from the survivor and off his musings in order to rub at his temples, easing the pain some. When the throbbing in his forehead subsided, he turned his attention back towards the entrance. The first wave had just met with Thames. The man had given up holding a line, leaving that for the others, as he ‘heroically’ charged into the middle of the monsters now, completely disregarding the people he’d brought with him. Thames' showmanship was on display as he cut through the first monster, even if the wavering blade and shaking arm betrayed his lack of sword skills to any discerning eyes.

Kalvin shook his head and stood. After the first few monster deaths, he moved to the front line, skirting the edge of the fence and slipping out into the mists, using Thames’ showboating as the perfect distraction to vanish. Once he was far enough away, he could only see a vague outline of the graveyard. He cast his will back, searching for the energy created by the deaths of the monsters. He latched onto the energy and reeled it across the distance, dragging it into his left side and giving him enough power to not just walk easily, but to manifest a weapon if he needed to. With the necessities taken care of and Thames guarding the graveyard, Kalvin strode down the path and towards the village, determined to see the events there to a conclusion for once.

Soon enough, the sound of combat faded and deserted houses came into view, emerging out of the mists around Kalvin, welcoming him into the small village. He didn’t waste time searching the houses, or pondering the fates of those who might have escaped. Instead he headed directly to the church, forcing open the heavy double doors and barging into the dusty sanctuary. The pews and villagers were exactly the same as he’d seen before. Nothing had changed here thankfully. Kalvin moved down the center aisle, upon reaching the dais he stepped to the left and waited just a few feet away from the hidden door that Father Malkovich had appeared from. He stood very still, his arms up in a ready position, as he prepared for the old priest’s potentially fiery, enthusiastic greeting.

His worries about a fiery greeting soon proved unneeded however as the door creaked open and the old, blind priest hobbled out into the sanctuary, weakly asking in his soft, raspy voice, “Hello? Hello, is anyone out there?”

“Excuse me, Father. I stumbled into the church while seeking sanctuary,” Kalvin said, his voice only quivering slightly as he tried to imbue his words with sincerity and warmth. 

“Oh. Of course! It’s been so long since we’ve had visitors or Travellers, ever since… Ah! Are you a Climber perhaps?” Father Malkovich asked suddenly.

“Yes. I’ve recently become a Climber. Perhaps introductions are in order. I’m Climber Kalvin Atrophos at your service,” Kalvin said with a slight bow, while inside his stomach a knot of guilt formed.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Climber Kalvin. That’s quite the last name you have. I’m Father Malkovich, a priest of Kelem the Great Guide.” As he introduced his patron, Father Malkovich brought both hands together before him and bowed his head slightly in reverence.

Kalvin forced a smile to his face and let his arms drop from their guarded position, feeling reassured that the old priest would not attack him. Steeling himself, Kalvin forced his next question out, hoping to quickly lead Father Malkovich back to where their conversation had ended before. “Father… If I might ask, what’s happened here? All these people in the pews? The empty houses?”

“Ah! Nothing untoward, I assure you! I know you said you recently became a Climber, but… do you perhaps possess the power to bring back the dead?” Father Malkovich asked hopefully, his head lifting and his clouded eyes roaming over the room searching hopefully.

“I can’t bring back the dead sadly, nor do I know anyone who can. Could we perhaps put these people to rest?” Kalvin asked instead.

Father Malkovich shook his head, his face filling with an expression of sorrow. “Would that be so simple? If we leave the church, the undead around the village will swarm and attempt to consume my flock. Without a way to guard them while I consecrate the ground and bury them, I fear it’s far too risky.”

Kalvin had figured it was something like that. Although he’d nearly died to the old Priest’s powerful magic before, there was no telling what monsters lurked around the village. It could be the same as at the Graveyard or a completely different sort of beast.

“If I dug the graves while you protect me, and I protect you while you consecrate the ground and perform the rites, would that work?” Kalvin asked after some thought.

Father Malkovich’s bushy, gray eyebrows arched up at Kalvin’s suggestion, his gnarled fingers reaching up to rub his chin for several seconds as he thought about it.

“Would you truly put yourself at risk like that for a stranger you just met?”

Kalvin smiled weakly as he suppressed his initial response. No of course not! What kind of madman would do that? Instead, he took a page from Thames playbook, pretending to be the hero as he spoke with the same warm, friendly tone he’d been using with the old Priest. “Of course, it’s only right to help those in need.”

Chapter 50

The long stretch of time it took Father Malkovich to gather his things, and seal the church, gave Kalvin time to process his feelings towards the situation. As he digested the guilt in his stomach he understood the reason for it. He felt bad for deceiving the old priest. Interacting with the man, blaming him for his previous deaths, and listening to his story about how he’d watched over these people and had taken care of them as they died had made Kalvin feel a stronger bond with this random Tower inhabitant than his fellow Climbers.

As the old man hobbled down the steps of the church with a determined look on his face, Kalvin found himself hopeful that in this life he’d be able to actually accomplish something. Those positive thoughts slowly began to fade as Father Malkovich led him out of the village. Kalvin was barely able to see ten feet in front of him as they stepped away from the village and off the paths. The mists proved to be inconsequential to the blind priest as they walked. When they came to a halt several minutes later, Kalvin found himself in a small cloister of dying, leafless trees, at the base of a mountain.

“Here,” Father Malkovich said as he pointed to dying, brown grass before him. When Kalvin didn’t reply immediately the old priest took the staff he’d brought to lean on and began to drag the end of it along the ground outlining a large square. “It needs to be at least three feet deep so that when I consecrate the ground the spell will penetrate into the earth. When you start to disturb the earth, the undead will soon rush here. Please focus on digging though. I promise I’ll keep you safe while you work, young man.”

Kalvin blinked at the Father’s words and the enormity of the task. He had to bury an entire village worth of bodies, by himself, while the Priest defended him from a horde of monsters. If the army of monsters that had appeared in his last life showed up here, Kalvin highly doubted that Father Malkovich would be able to hold them off. Just digging a single, normal-sized grave with the ten to twenty minutes he had remaining before Thames’ defense failed would be difficult, let alone building a massive grave for the entire village. 

With the clock slowly ticking down Kalvin slowly began to manipulate the Necrotic Energy out of his left hand, letting it weave between his skeletal left fingers and wrap over his wrist. When he’d made the black lance for his one strike against Izanami, he’d had several waves of monster deaths empowering him, and yet he’d poured every drop of willpower into that monstrous weapon. Now he tried something different, forgoing worries about sharpness or density, focusing instead on making it durable, thin, and light, something he could use for an hour if needed instead of a few seconds.

When he was finally done, what he’d created was a makeshift shovel. The black mist had coalesced into a solid, shiny black material that had been formed into a thin webbing that connected his fingers. The tips of his fingers and the webbing were strengthened by a slightly thicker matte edge that he hoped would bite into the ground and save him any pain. It was the first truly complex object he’d made with a slow and steady thought process rather than something instinctive and easy.

He kneeled down on the crunchy, dead grass and glanced around taking in his surroundings once more. No monsters in sight, and Father Malkovich was flipping through a leather bound tome, mumbling to himself. Aware that time was running out Kalvin stopped worrying, took a deep breath and drove his left hand into the earth. 

His fingers flexed assisted by the liquid metal and he scooped out a head-sized chunk of sod. He barely had time to marvel at how well his contraption worked when all hell broke loose. From the base of the mountain, monsters began to tear themselves out of the earth. At first it was just Lesser Ravenous Ghouls who charged mindlessly at Father Malkovich.

“Keep digging! I’ll hold them off!” The old man said. His previous wavering, raspy voice was now replaced by something, booming and confident.

Kalvin continued to dig, slamming his hand into the earth and tossing away the sod that came up. He worked across the surface of the outline digging down the first few inches. Each time he rose to shovel out a new handful of dirt, he caught a glimpse of the battlefield. The first few scenes were scattered, ghouls charging across the open ground, and he went down for another shovel. The ghouls were shrieking and preparing to leap as he tossed out another pile of dirt and went down for another. As he resurfaced again, Kalvin saw the open tome in Father Malkovich projecting a green-gold light and the fallen ghouls.

Every couple of shovels of dirt the scene changed, like watching a movie through a series of pictures. More ghouls charged, a wave of green gold light swept out from the tome and in the next picture every ghoul in the group died. It wasn’t long before Diegheists began to appear. The sight of the faster, deadlier abominations skittering towards the frail old man caused Kalvin to shiver, but still he ducked back into the growing grave. When he resurfaced, blasts of warm air swept over his face. The same kind of firebolt Father Malkovich had first greeted Kalvin with so many lives ago was now impacting the lead Diegheist’s chest and burning a hole through the freakish monster.

The next flash of images Kalvin saw obliterated any worries he’d been having about Father Malkovich’s ability to protect him. Firebolts streaked through the air and illuminated the sky. Over a dozen bolts of fire, each one enough to kill a Diegheist, tore through the front line of the monster wave and brought the ever growing shrieking and screeching of the ghouls to a whisper. Kalvin smiled softly and once more dove down into the pit, content to do his part for as long as he was able, and happy that he was progressing inside the Tower for once.

Chapter 51

Kalvin dug for well past the time limit he’d estimated Thames could defend for. Twenty minutes had turned into an hour and then three. During all of which Father Malkovich stood strong fighting more and more complex and powerful undead monsters while flinging out waves of light and increasingly larger balls of fire. Skulking creatures made completely of bones and cartilage, hulking beings of muscle and rot, and slender creatures of flesh and cord, all fell to the old Priest until finally, Kalvin tossed out the final shovel of earth and climbed up to stand beside the man.

“It’s done,” Kalvin muttered as he moved to stand behind Father Malkovich. His arms and body ached and his creation unraveled from around his fingers. The energy drained from him as he gazed out at the destruction the man had caused. The open field before them was covered in bodies. Some were burnt to a crisp, others were sliced into pieces, and others still looked like they had been torn apart by a savage beast. Floating above it all was a dense, nearly black cloud of Necrotic Energy. It was so thick that as Kalvin breathed in and called it towards him, he could feel its chill as it crawled over his skin and sank into his body, erasing the fatigue he felt almost instantly.

He greedily drank from the ocean of powerful energy left behind by the monsters' deaths. More and more of the dark cloud trickled into his body, turning from a thin mist that lurked beneath his skin, into a tangible heavy fog that pressed against his bones and sank into his muscles. Kalvin didn’t want that moment to end, constantly devouring, the feeling of a bottomless hunger being sated. It must be exactly how the ghouls felt each time they tore into a fresh meal. All good things must come to an end though.

“Lad, I need to get my flock settled in. Will you be alright?” Father Malkovich’s rasping voice cut into Kalvin’s mind, wiping away enough of the trance he’d fallen into so that Kalvin could muster a response.

“Uhm… Sorry, what? Why… did the monsters stop attacking?” Kalvin asked, his voice filled with puzzlement and a slight note of sorrow.

“You stopped digging, so they are no longer drawn here,” Father Malkovich explained calmly as he lowered himself into the pit.

“Oh… What?” Kalvin blinked as he tried to process the old man’s words.

“The monsters here, the undead specifically, become enraged when someone disturbs the earth. So each time you pulled out some of the earth they came seeking vengeance.”

“I see… So what should we do next? Do we need to head back and start transporting the bodies?” Kalvin asked softly as he tried to consider the logistics of transporting such a huge number of corpses one or two at a time.

“No. I have them all here with me. I’ll lay them each down, but as soon as a body touches the ground, the cycle will continue. The dead will rise and come for their pound of flesh. Are you sure you’ll be able to hold them off, young man?” Father Malkovich turned to face Kalvin as he asked him this. The old man’s glassy, empty eyes seemed to lock onto Kalvin as the once hunched, frail priest stood straight and confident. “It’s not too late to stop if you think you can’t handle it… We can still go back to the church. Life there… isn’t so bad.”

Kalvin shook his head, not even considering Father Malkovich’s suggestion. “No. I’ve got this. Do what you need to Father. I’ll keep you safe.”

Despite witnessing the previous battle and monsters he’d never seen before, Kalvin felt confident that with this much energy he could take on the world. He wouldn’t even need a reset. And if Thames' defense had somehow held on this long, hopefully they could continue long enough for Kalvin to see this to the end. Father Malkovich looked like he was going to protest Kalvin’s decisions, but after a moment he merely turned away and touched his hand against his neck where a small ornate necklace lay. As with everything magical in this place, a burst of light pulsed out from the necklace and in the next moment, the body of a villager lay in the dirt before Father Malkovich.

The corpse had just hit the ground when the monsters tore out of the earth once more. It was almost a familiar sight for Kalvin. Six Lesser Ravenous Ghouls charged towards him, arms out, claws extended, mouths open. Behind them, the next wave of monsters was already tearing itself out of the ground. Kalvin summoned the gray Necrotic energy to his left hand, intending to form another set of claws before he stopped himself.

The monsters were only a few feet from him when he twisted the dark energy, condensing it rapidly into small bits of metal that he folded and linked. Just as the lead monster leaped at him, Kalvin’s vision manifested and he swung out with a length of heavy chain, the same kind that had kept him strapped to the hospital bed for so long. The shiny, black metal links crashed through the jaw of the leading ghoul and continued to travel through its mouth and in a spray of gore it erupted out of the back of the monster's neck, murdering it in one smooth lash.

The chain swung back to Kalvin then, looping over his shoulder and behind him before he dropped his weight and twisted. The chain spun back with the additional force. The magic in the chains forced it to lighten as he snapped it back towards the monsters, and grew heavy as it sheared through the wave of monsters, decimating two on the return strike as Kalvin grew more confident with his new weapon. As the chain looped back, he shortened the length, drawing more of the power back inside of him as he guided the chain to windmill over his shoulders while he advanced on the next three. Each of them met the same fate, their bodies falling apart as the chain impacted the top of their skulls and tore down through their body, like a spiral saw through a block of wood, perfectly splitting each of them in half.

Kalvin smiled at the gruesome sight, watching as puffs of gray mist erupted from their bodies to join the dense black clouds lingering over the battlefield. He breathed in heavily, restoring any spent power as he advanced towards the next two waves, eager to take the offensive for once.

Chapter 52

Kalvin advanced across the plains, marching straight up to the mountain as he swung his chains before him, sweeping away the ghouls with each swing like the reaper wielding his scythe. For the first few waves Kalvin was a herald of death, standing feet from a large crack in the mountain, each vile monster that crawled out was greeted to the same brutal death as the whirring links tore apart their bodies.

The tempo of the fight only changed after several waves of monsters had been slaughtered, as the faster and nimbler Diegheists appeared sporadically throughout the waves. Each of the freakishly long-limbed pale monsters caused Kalvin’s rhythm to stutter as he had to redirect the chain to target them specifically as the Diegheists ducked and wove beneath the scything chain as they crawled towards him. Soon Kalvin found himself pressed back as more and more monsters poured out of the ever widening crack at the base of the mountain.

Each wave reached double digits with handfuls of Diegheist streaking towards him, and Kalvin fell further into his battle trance. His mind was no longer on the battle. Focusing on the falling bodies around him, he felt each death if it was his own, causing his power to skyrocket as he further synergized with the chilling gray energy that seeped into his body. Instinct moved his body, as each threat rose from the ground. His hands moved automatically to whip the chain towards the new arrival. 

The longer the battle dragged on, the more his fighting style evolved, with new unlimited reserves of energy Kalvin truly experimented. First, he formed the edge of the chain into a blunt weight that crushed and crashed through bodies, smashing them to smithereens and causing explosions of dirt each time it struck the ground. After toying with a weighted blunt end for a time, his focus shifted and the dense metal thinned out forming into a sharp slender blade that he used to slice into the waves of undead, through bone and flesh alike the new weapon cut cleanly. Soon a strange melody formed. Each time Kalvin whipped the chain back around, it cut through the air, creating a distorted whistling sound, fading each time it smoothly sliced through a monster, the body parts hitting the ground like beats from a drum.

Kalvin fought like that for what felt like eternity, only pausing when something new appeared, crawling out from the crack on all fours. It’s bone-clad body clanked and crunched as it crushed his fallen foes beneath it. As the creature, its body made entirely of bone and a wispy green fire, pulled itself completely free of the crack and turned its attention to Kalvin, all the clunky noises faded and it streaked forward. 

The amalgamation of bones only came up to his chest in height, yet its body was nearly the length of a truck. The worst thing about the monster was that despite its appearance being closest to the skeleton of a large predatory cat, perhaps a sabertooth, the bones it was made of were all recognizably human. A femur here, a tibia there, its claws were made of sharpened ribs, while its teeth were rows upon rows of sharpened finger bones placed together like a meat grinder.

It had moved fast, streaking across the battlefield and darting beneath a sweep of Kalvin’s chain whip. Even under the threat of death from the creature’s terrifying maw, Kalvin stayed deep inside his mind, letting his body respond instinctively. Painful lessons he’d long suppressed surfaced as his muscle memory pulled his body aside while his left hand chopped down, striking at the back of the monster’s neck as it surged past him. Even in his current state, he poured energy into each motion. His feet slid across a cold, slick surface to give him enough momentum to dodge the large predator's attack. A black oil coated his free hand as it moved down, by the time the side of his hand impacted the bone sabertooth’s spine the oil had formed into a sharp edge mimicking a butcher's cleaver that he used to chop clean through the thick cords of bone and sever the creatures head from its body.

The monstrous bonecat fell apart with Kalvin’s strike. Whatever magic that had been animating it and holding the bones together failed and caused a small avalanche of bones to clatter onto the battlefield. The fight against the large predator felt like it had only taken moments, but it had caused the entire battlefield to change. Kalvin now found himself further away from the crack, with more monsters spilling out onto the plains faster and faster. Another bonecat could be seen emerging behind the horde of undead.

Kalvin pushed forward, clearing out the lesser monsters by the dozen with his chain whip as he moved back towards the spawn point of the monsters. His concentration finally slipped then, anxiety about the most recent monster ate at his focus. Slowly, the glossy black metal coating his hand receded back into his skin. The cleaver wasn’t a weapon he could use in this battle of attrition. If each time a new monster came out he was forced back and pushed into the melee, he’d soon find himself with his back against the grave, struggling to protect the Priest.

He sorted through his previous creations mentally while his body moved on autopilot and cleaved through the monsters. The claws had been deadly, but a one-on-one fight would see him overwhelmed as the number of enemies continued to grow. His floating needle trick would do nothing to creatures of bone, and even less to the monstrosities of muscle and flesh he’d seen Father Malkovich fight. The cleaver suffered from the same problems as the claws. Even if it packed a far greater punch, it was only useful for one monster at a time. Even the powerful lance he’d used against Izanami wouldn’t help when more of these monsters eventually spewed forth. The chain whip was his finest creation so far, yet while it was great at sweeping away the ghouls, it was growing increasingly difficult to defend against the numerous Diegheists. Now with larger, nimbler beasts joining the fight, the weapon would soon be outclassed.

Kalvin fought his way forward, pushing back through the flood of enemies until his chains came within range of the next skeletal sabertooth and the next round of fighting began.

Chapter 53

The chain once again proved ineffective against the large monster. Each time Kalvin brought the long sweeping chain whip towards the creature, it would roll away, duck beneath it, or leap above it. Worse was that each time he redirected the chain towards the undead predator, the other monsters pressed towards Kalvin. Several Diegheists even attempted to slip past him in order to reach Father Malkovich and the villagers. Those few frenzied moments of panic where he thought a monster might interrupt the burial, or desecrate one villager, caused Kalvin’s focus to switch off mentally designing weapons, or rationalizing his decisions, letting his body fight on autopilot. If he died here, or let Father Malkovich perish, all of this would have been for naught. Who knows when he’d get such a perfect opportunity. He could be stuck in this hellscape for another twenty deaths before the stars would align, and he could get this far.

He took deliberate control of his body then, using the nearly infinite source of energy to attempt something he’d only been able to do for a moment before. Forcing his power to push past his skin in a thin ooze, he let it trickle down his arms and legs, coating his entire body before he began to shape and harden it. Slowly the black, shiny sludge coalesced into thin metal plates that he twisted into gauntlets, greaves, a chest plate, and finally a full helm. 

Clad in an armor of thin plate mail, Kalvin hoped he looked the part of a fearsome black knight and not like a man wearing a tin can. Moments later, as the skeletal sabertooth swiped at him with its deadly claws, Kalvin found his concerns about the armor's appearance fleeing his mind as the claws bounced harmlessly off the armor instead of tearing into his chest.

“Function over form, got it,” he murmured to himself before bending at the knees, dropping his center and hammering a gauntlet-clad right hook into the side of the undead predator's skull in retaliation.

Beneath his helm, his mouth fell open as he witnessed the impact of his blow. His empowered punch had obliterated the side of the monster’s head, literally pulverizing a section of its skull and turning it into a fine white powder that drifted through the air as the monster collapsed to the ground felled from that single strike. With his immediate problem now solved, Kalvin formed a chain from his left gauntlet, letting it extend slowly, regrowing to the full length of the last one as he cleaned up the battlefield. It took him several minutes to fight through the ghouls and Diegheists, but he forced his way through them to the crack at the base of the mountain where they seemed to pour out of. 

Then came the real test. As he stood there, wielding the chain whip to cleave through the lesser monsters, another skeletal sabertooth surged out of the crack, pushing through the other undead in order to strike at their sole threat, Kalvin. He used his extra weight to plant his feet in the ground and weather the first blow, not giving the creature even an inch of ground as it barreled into his chest and its teeth bounced off his chest plate.

Kalvin dropped his center of gravity once the creature’s first attack landed. His body twisted as his right shoulder turned, and he slammed a powerful, right uppercut into the monster’s jaw. He pulverized it into a thin white dust once again and sent the skeletal sabertooth clattering to the ground in a pile of bone. His eyes drifted away from the corpse and back towards the numerous monsters skittering across the battlefield, only to find that his plan had worked. As he’d fought the larger monster, that small instinctual part of his body that craved action had kept his chain in motion. Around him lay the results of letting instinct guide the deadly metal whip. A multitude of waist-high undead goblin parts lay strewn around him, while several cleanly cut Diegheist bodies lay just within the striking range of his chain.

It was a strange feeling to watch something move without deliberately moving that part of his body. Like the beating of his heart, or the expansion of his lungs with each breath, the chain whirled around with a life of its own. Kalvin stood perfectly still at the edge of the crack, letting two more bone kittens crawl out of the ground as he watched the chain and its movements. Something occurred to him as he watched the chain tear through its hundredth Diegheist. His left hand and arm hadn’t moved at all. What his instinct was controlling wasn’t his body, it was his Ability. It was using his Climber power to decrease the chain’s weight, increase it, or even length or shorten it as needed all while directly it to precisely where it needed to be. 

A world of possibilities opened to Kalvin then. He could animate another chain, make larger, more complex creations, or even mimic other people’s Abilities given enough time. The window of opportunity for development and the fantastic imaginings of his mind were soon brought crashing to a halt as he engaged both skeletal sabertooths simultaneously. He bashed aside the first one with a straight right punch, sending it flying back into the crack where its bones rained down onto the battlefield’s new arrivals. The second monster was where the problem with Kalvin’s new strategy was revealed. He braced to take the hit on his armor, already preparing his counterattack as its sharp claws pierced through his arm, tore through the flesh beneath, and scraped across his ribs.

He let out a hiss of pain, trying to suck down air to stop it as his armor failed. Around him, he felt it turn from hardened metal to the thick oily sludge. As he backed away from the monster, his mind withdrew internally, searching for the problem and found it almost immediately. It came down to a simple fact: he was running out of power. He had been burning through his stored energy faster than his body could process the mist. The armor, the chain, his experimentation, and even his subconscious use of his Ability to control his chain whip had drained away his reserves. Now, with his armor and weapons rapidly melting away, he stood defenseless on the battlefield, facing an ever-growing horde of undead that wanted to devour him and ruin everything he’d worked so hard for.

Chapter 54

Kalvin stepped back, trying to buy himself time as he devoted more and more of his attention to pulling the mists towards him. He sunk further into those memories and feelings of death and decay that had enabled him to tap into the Ability. He found the flow just the same as before, stagnant and saturated. Even as he mentally pulled on the mist and tried to drag it into his body, the process was agonizingly slow compared to the tongues of the Diegheists that darted forward trying to pierce his flesh. Kalvin dodged, ducking and weaving back and forth as he avoided attack after attack. Slowly he was pressed back. More and more monsters continued to pour forth and finally as he’d pulled enough power into his body to fuel a new creation, the battle ended. 

A brilliant golden light swept across the ground, rushing over Kalvin’s feet and washing over the horde of monsters, even pouring into the hole they crawled out of and briefly illuminating the interior of the mountain. To Kalvin, the light felt itchy and irritating, like sandpaper rubbing against his skin. However, as he watched the light crash over the monsters, he suddenly found himself grateful that he had only suffered a slight inconvenience from the radiant supernova.

For the monsters, the surge of golden light must have been agony. Any part of monsters that came into contact with the golden radiance, immediately melted away. Be it teeth, claw, bone, or rotten flesh, all of it fell away from their bodies. Each creature sunk into the light or toppled over as their legs literally disappeared beneath them. The screams and warbling cries of pain that filled the battlefield and echoed out from the crack in the mountain were so loud they shook the ground and Kalvin had to struggle to maintain his balance as the battlefield around him was baptized by the light. When the shaking extended its way up the mountain, Kalvin understood it wasn’t the cries of the undead that were shaking the ground. It was the mountain that was moving the surrounding earth. He watched in horror and awe as the large crack in the mountain's side began to close. The jagged opening of earth stitched and weaved itself together so seamlessly no signs remained of the previous gaping maw.

Just as suddenly as the light had appeared and flooded over the battlefield, it receded. Kalvin twisted to follow the tidal wave of radiance as it returned to the now solid ground where the large opening had recently lain. With no other monsters around, no new crack forming, and the only other remaining upright figure on the battlefield bent over in a pose of prayer, Kalvin let himself collapse to the ground. Relief washed over him as he sprawled out on the grass. His limbs hung limp, even with more energy trickling into his body. A deep weariness had soaked into his bones, and a haze clouded his mind. He’d never gone ALL out for so long, and had never performed at his highest possible performance level for what had felt like hours.

He lay there, blinking dust from his eyes, while letting his body soak in the chilling mist. The sweat on his body slowly turned cold and caused his ragged hospital gown to cling to his chest. With a low grunt, he glanced down as a certain chill swept between his legs.

“First thing I’m doing once I get out of here is buying some pants,” Kalvin said in a tired, yet amused tone as he forced his aching body to stand once more.

Once he stood upright without toppling over, Kalvin slowly trudged back to Father Malkovich. His lips opened to say something as he neared the old priest. Yet upon seeing the man kneeling in prayer before the fresh grave that contained every member of his small village, Kalvin held back his questions and sealed his lips. After a few minutes of waiting in silence, Father Malkovich slowly rose and turned to Kalvin.

“Thank you… Words can not express to you how much this means to me,” said the old priest as he swayed in place.

Kalvin stepped forward, placing a hand on the elderly man’s shoulder to steady him. “Father, are you alright?”

“Never better, my son, never better. Let's leave this place behind us and head back to the church.”

Father Malkovich finished speaking and stepped away from Kalvin, turning and stepping towards the fog that covered the open plains once again.

Kalvin followed behind the old priest, his eyes lingering on the Father’s shoulder. It hadn’t felt… right when he’d reached out to steady the priest. The man was older, true, but he’d displayed surprising strength and conviction during his turn at defense. Why was it that his shoulder was lacking any muscle or fat? The Father’s shoulder had been cold to the touch. His gaze drifted over the Priest as they traversed the plains and by the time the outlines of the small village came into view, Kalvin had noticed several subtle changes. Father Malkovich’s robes now hung loosely around his body, revealing a much thinner frame than before. The man’s face now held many creases and lines, having gone from respectable weathered elderly features, to ancient and decrepit within the last hour somehow. Even the man’s gnarled hands that clutched at his tome and walking stick trembled and shook as if even the weight of those few items were too much for him.

When they finally reached the front steps of the church, a wheezing Father Malkovich dropped onto the steps and took a seat with his back to the door.

“Lad… This old bag needs to rest for a moment. I know a-as a Climber… you must want your reward…” Every few words Father Malkovich’s speech was broken as he gasped for breath, till finally he stuttered out his last sentence. “C-could you c-come back in an hour?”

Kalvin nodded sadly. “Yes, Father… Is there anything you need?”

“No, my son. I just need a moment to catch my breath and make my peace,” the elderly priest replied without meeting Kalvin’s eyes.

“Alright… I’ll go check on the others and then come back Father Malkovich,” Kalvin said before slowly turning to leave.

“L-lad… Would you do me a favor?” 

“Yes, Father?”

“Will you visit the grave from time to time? Perhaps leave some flowers? I fear I may not make the journey again.”

“Yes, Father. Of course,” Kalvin answered as he began to slowly walk away from the church. As he reached the outskirts of the village, he paused and turned back to glance at the church and the unmoving figure on its steps. Kalvin stood there for a long time, memorizing the sight as somewhere deep inside him warned that this would be the last time he’d see the old man.

When the tome and staff finally tumbled from the diligent priest’s hands, Kalvin turned away and marched into the fog once more.

Chapter 55

The walk back to the cemetery stretched out for Kalvin as he examined what had just happened. Did I do something wrong? Bury the townsfolk, protect the priest until he completes the ritual, and win, right? That’s how it should be… Right? Maybe that was too much to ask for, but… Did the old man have to bite the dust after all that? Would he still be alive if I hadn’t meddled in the village’s business? 

As he neared the entrance of the graveyard, Kalvin shook his head to clear it, murmuring his final few thoughts into the empty air as he did so. “It'll be alright. He’ll be back in the next life.”

Determined to set the past events of this life behind him and try for a better outcome next time, Kalvin focused on what he could still change. For example, finding out why and how this life had stretched out for hours more than any previous one. So he stepped into the cemetery and glanced around, eager to find out how Thames had led such a successful defense for so long. 

The first thing Kalvin saw upon stepping into the graveyard was a small pile of bodies. Thankfully, none of the bodies belonged to his fellow Climbers. The miniature hill of corpses comprised about twenty Lesser Ravenous Ghouls that had been hacked to pieces. Of the Climbers he’d been concerned about, of Thames’s defense he’d been so curious about, of the survivors, there was no sign. After a moment of contemplation, Kalvin advanced towards the sole figure in sight, Izanami.

A chill crept down his spine as he took in the bloody, ethereal bride. The last life where she had nearly wiped out his small group, before devouring the soul of one of his fellow Climbers was still fresh in his memory. Each step forward felt a little heavier as he considered if that attack, where she’d torn something intangible and transparent from Leon and consumed it, would permanently kill him as well, ending this never-ending loop he’d found himself in. It might be preferable to returning to the hospital, chained to his bed, trapped in that dark, sterile basement.

“ZOMBIE!”

The sudden shout tore Kalvin out of his morbid thoughts and injected a fresh dose of adrenaline into his veins. He spun towards the noise while pushing the mist out of the pores of his skin, coating his fists in a black, oily sludge that he readied to transform into whatever weapon he needed for this new threat. He saw a rather shocked Abigail standing just behind the pile of corpses, with several crimson monster cores clenched in her fists that were raised in an awkward guard position.

“I. AM. NOT. A. ZOMBIE!” Kalvin snarled with a bit more venom than he’d intended as he stomped across the ground towards Abigail.

“Oh! Ah… Are you sure?” 

“Do you know many zombies that can talk?” 

“Well, don’t most of them say brains in all the movies?” 

“Does this look like a movie to you?” Kalvin answered as he gestured towards the mound of corpses, the graveyard, and the floating bride in the center of it all.

“Is that a trick question?” Abigail countered with a snort as she lowered her hands.

Kalvin’s eyes narrowed, and he glared at Abigail, his left eye twitching. Abigail gave an apologetic shrug and let out a sigh before speaking once more.

“Fine, I believe you aren’t a zombie. But if you aren’t a zombie, where did you come from? I didn’t see you in that blonde bastard’s group.”

Kalvin arched an eyebrow at Abigail’s words. He knew exactly which blonde bastard she was referencing.

“When everything was just starting I went out into the mist,” he answered her question, before asking two of his own. “What happened here? Where did everyone go?”

“They left after the monsters stopped coming. The blonde maniac in charge kept muttering about something being different and needing to check the swamp. When he left, all his little groupies followed,” Abigail replied bitterly while pointing to the east.

Kalvin followed Abigail’s gesture while nodding slowly. If something had changed, he’d want to go check it out too.

But why the swamp?

His brows furrowed as the thought crossed his mind. His eyes stared out at the fog beyond the iron bars of the graveyard, as if they could pierce through and let him see what was going on. When it was clear he wouldn’t receive answers by just staring into the fog bank, Kalvin turned back to Abigail and asked his next question.

“So why are you still here if everyone else left?”

Abigail frowned at the question, crossing her arms over her chest and tilted her head. “What you are really asking is why did I get left behind?”

Kalvin merely shrugged. His curiosity about the further changes inside the Tower overruling his desire to verbally spar with Abigail at the moment.

“Truth is, I didn’t buy into his bullshit. Manifesting a sword out of a beam of light, telling everyone they’ve been chosen to be Climbers and defend humanity. What a load of nonsense. Plus… I’ve seen enough of his kind to last a lifetime.” Abigail murmured the last few words so quietly that Kalvin could barely hear them.

“I see…” Kalvin answered as his gaze swept through the graveyard, scrutinizing everything intensely, even letting his power stretch out to search for unknown sources of death. “So, what have you been doing while everyone was gone?”

“Uh… Mostly asking the Guide questions,” Abigail hesitated after answering, before slowly extending her hand, opening it to reveal the gleaming red monster cores. “And harvesting these.”

Kalvin barely glanced at the cores. He’d used hundreds by now and nothing had come close to being as useful as his Necrotic Energy Manipulation. Leveling up was interesting, but by far not as useful as learning to use his power better. Instead, there was something he was more interested in. “What did Izanami tell you?”

Abigail frowned at Kalvin’s reply, shaking her head and holding her hands closer towards him. “That’s not important. Don’t you understand what these are? Monster cores! We can level up with these, gain new Abilities, and all kinds of amazing benefits. A single core outside a tower sells for nearly $100,000 and that’s if you can find a buyer!”

Kalvin merely shrugged and pointed back towards Izanami. “100k won’t help me right now. Answers from her might.”

Chapter 56

“B-but… you could level up,” Abigail stammered as she blinked rapidly, her expression shifting to one of disbelief. “You could get powers like the Iceblade, or Sunstar! You could become invulnerable like the Titan! A single lucky level up could change your entire destiny. Don’t you understand!? I’m not trying to keep them all for myself. I can share… a f-few.”

Kalvin stopped walking towards Izanami and turned back to Abigail, his curiosity piqued as something in her previous words occurred to him.

“How do you know what these would be worth? Have you ever seen them outside a Tower?” Kalvin asked as he pointed towards the monster cores.

“Oh! I mean… No, I’ve never seen them, but there have been rumors floating around forever about pills that could boost Climber’s powers. It’s said that the Climbers Association will auction off a few, or you’ll hear rumors of them surfacing in the black markets. Although… I wonder if the Association purposefully doesn’t tell people how the pills are made or where they come from, eating something that came out of a monster is kind of, eh?”

Kalvin waited for Abigail’s rambling to end before continuing towards Izanami.

“Wait! Don’t you want some?” Abigail shouted after him.

“No, you can ‌keep all of them,” Kalvin answered as he waved Abigail’s question away and came to a stop in front of Izanami.

He took in the floating bride, with her lacy veil, long gloves that ended in all too deadly claws, and nearly spotless wedding dress. Only the single crimson stain above where her heart was darkened the otherwise stark white attire. Behind Izanami sat the large marble mausoleum, its heavy stone door slightly ajar, the edges of a large, closed sarcophagus just visible within. Kalvin had sheltered inside the mausoleum before, yet barely knew anything about it. He’d just stepped around Izanami, intent on exploring the interior of the dark memorial when the Guide spoke.

“Greetings. I am known as Izanami. Please let me be the first to welcome you into the Tower of Sheol, and congratulate you on becoming a Climber. I have been assigned as your Guide through this level of the Tower. As such, it would be my pleasure to answer any of your Tower-related questions.”

Izanami’s customary introduction and offer to answer his questions pulled Kalvin’s attention away from the mausoleum and back to the matter at hand. That being the abnormalities in the graveyard.

“I actually had a Tower-related question,” Kalvin paused in his advance, turning so his eyes met Izanami’s veil, while he pointed towards the pile of monster corpses. “What happened to the other monsters?”

“Could you be more specific, Climber?”

“Well… From what I heard, the others thought there were supposed to be monsters coming here every so often. So what happened to them?”

“Ah, this is a question that has quite an easy answer, Climber. Those monsters were dispatched elsewhere and as such never made it here. I’m glad I could answer your question. Do you have any other questions, Climber?” Izanami answered primly, her stately voice containing a hint of sweetness.

“Dispatched as in… sent somewhere else or killed?” 

“Both.”

Izanami’s terse reply caused the pieces of the puzzle to tumble into place for Kalvin.

“The mountain… The monsters that tried to stop the ritual were the monsters that attacked the graveyard. But they appeared far faster than at the graveyard. There was barely a break between waves, whereas here it could be ten or fifteen minutes before another wave appears,” He murmured softly, his mind whirring as he fit everything together. 

“Was that a question?”

Kalvin shook his head. “No sorry. I’m just talking to myself. I had a question about something you said though.”

“Yes, Climber?”

“Earlier you said you were glad you could answer my question. Does that mean there are questions you cannot answer?”

When no immediate answer came to Kalvin’s question, he smiled softly and backed away from the floating bride as he said. “Thank you for your assistance Mrs. Guide.”

“It’s Miss Guide, but you are welcome all the same Climber. Should you have any other Tower-related questions, I will be here to answer them.”

Kalvin nodded in acknowledgment and continued to back away from Izanami. Only once he was beyond the reach of her claws did he turn and make his way back to Abigail and the mound of corpses. The dark-haired young woman looked nauseous as she slowly pushed the monster cores into her mouth while staring at the space in front of her.

“Get anything good?”

Abigail jumped and stumbled back at Kalvin’s question, spitting out several of the cores as she spun towards him.

“Jesus Christ! Don’t scare me like that!” Abigail shouted at Kalvin as she snatched at the cores that had fallen to the ground.

Kalvin winced as he watched her wipe the dirt from the monster's cores and shove them back into her mouth. When she’d finished swallowing the last few cores, he asked his question once again. 

“Did you get anything good from your level ups?”

Abigail didn’t immediately answer. She gazed longingly at the empty air where her status screen must have been. “No.”

"What level up options did you pick?”

“Active,” Abigail answered.

“What else?” Kalvin asked as he raised an eyebrow, knowing she had to have leveled up quite a few times.

“I picked Active every time and got… nothing.”

“What do you mean, nothing? Like you didn’t get any powers at all?”

“No, just… nothing useful. What am I supposed to do with these Abilities? A power that makes me see in the dark, a power that makes me see colored lights, a power that makes me… taste colors? And a power that decomposes corpses?”

Kalvin thought he might have an inkling what power might let Abigail see colored lights, and that she might oversell just how bad her level ups had been. “What were you hoping for? A divine sword from the heavens, or one manifested from the elements like the Iceblade you mentioned?”

Abigail’s gaze jerked away from her screen at that, settling onto Kalvin and giving him a withering glare. It was clear to Kalvin that he’d struck a nerve and he raised both hands in a placating gesture as he spoke once more.

“Look, maybe it’s not so bad. Maybe your Abilities do more than just let you see things. Like the light one! Did you ask Izanami about it?”

Kalvin already knew which Ability Abigail possessed to start, but was curious how this version of Abigail would answer him.

“Yes. It’s just not helpful in this situation. It sounds like it’ll take a ton of experimenting to be useful. I basically can see different colored lights in the world and I can remove those lights to cause different effects.” Abigail answered with a shrug.

“Well, what do you see when you look at me with this Ability?”

Abigail tapped at the air before her, before slowly sweeping her gaze over Kalvin and responding. “You are pretty normal, with lots of random colors all over the place. None of which I have any idea about the meaning of, but…” Abigail trailed off as her eyes passed over Kalvin’s left arm, with its bare bone and skin appearance.

“But what? Do you see something?”

“Your left side only has muted colors, like everything has been desaturated or all the light has been drained away. It goes all the way up your body to your head, where it turns into a mass of gray. You have over a dozen massive gray lights in your skull alone and they blot out everything else,” Abigail said as she openly gawked at Kalvin’s forehead.

“What do you think would happen if you tried to remove one of the—” Kalvin abruptly stopped talking as he caught sight of movement outside of the graveyard.

The conversation ended as Abigail turned to see what had caught Kalvin’s attention and together they watched as a creature emerged from the fog.

Chapter 57

Any hope for the figure emerging from the fog being friendly was dashed by the creature’s sheer size. It’s shrouded silhouette towered above even the mausoleum’s rooftop, while its gargantuan width caused the iron bars of the fence surrounding the graveyard to strain and creak as it squeezed through an entrance large enough for a school bus. It forced its way out of the fog and into the cemetery. The monstrous, hulking figure of muscle and flesh appeared more alive than the other monsters of the Tower, yet a few distinct features set it far, far apart, from anything remotely human. Arms and legs the size of tree trunks stuck out from the torso of the thing. Notably missing was a head of any kind. Instead on it’s massive chest, a multitude of malformed eyes clustered around a large, gaping mouth with a slobbering tongue sticking out of it.

Kalvin felt his stomach revolt as he watched skin and flesh slough away from the monster, leaving a pile of refuse behind as it trundled into the graveyard. He mentally pulled on the energy from the corpse mound beside him, dragging it into him at the same time as he formed a set of black metal claws around each of his hands. Once the deadly blades had completely solidified, Kalvin advanced towards the monstrosity. He started with a slow walk, then transitioned to a jog, and finally sprinted at the beast as its hulking size brought it further and further into the cemetery. It was heading toward Izanami, the Guide, that despite his reservations, Kalvin knew he needed to protect for this life not to be over prematurely.

He’d barely stepped into the path of the monster when it’s many misshapen eyes all swung towards him. Almost immediately after spotting him, the massive body twisted and a tree-trunk sized fist blurred forward to bash down on him. The unexpected speed that the creature displayed caught Kalvin completely unaware. He’d barely dived away from the fist when a BOOM sounded from behind him. The resulting shockwave from the creature’s blow slammed against Kalvin as he was mid-air, throwing him forward and bouncing him against the ground twice before he rolled to a stop against the graveyard’s iron fence.

Kalvin saw stars spinning across his vision as he sat back and forced himself to stand. The fleshy amalgamation lumbered towards him. It’s movements were slow and ponderous, a stark contrast to its previous blindingly fast attack. The twinkling stars faded from sight as his blurry surroundings came into focus. Kalvin’s head ached and despite having dodged the monster’s first attack he felt dizzy. Nevertheless, when another club foot smashed into the ground before him, Kalvin responded by dashing forward, charging at the behemoth’s stumpy legs.

He was still over ten feet away from the monster, far from being able to attack with his manifested claws, when another gigantic fist fell down on top of Kalvin. He’d been ready for the sudden blow this time though, and he twirled aside, narrowly avoiding the curled fist as it smashed into the ground where’d he’d just been. Rather than let the shockwave blow him away once again, Kalvin drove both of his deadly sharp claws into the wrist of the monster. The blades pierced deep into the exposed, rotten muscle and pink flesh of the beast, and as the resulting boom from the monster’s punch sounded out, Kalvin gripped at the monster’s forearm, unwilling to be sent flying once again. Only when the winds had subsided did he release his grip and pull away. Both sets of claws pulled free of the mountain of flesh to reveal nothing. There was no blood or no bones beneath. Only an endless expanse of flesh.

Kalvin landed in the crater left behind by the monster’s previous attack and once again charged the beast. He pumped more and more of the dark necrotic energy into his legs, empowering his speed and enabling him to close the gap between them. Sliding to a stop beside the behemoth’s right leg he rapidly dissolved his claws back into the oily liquid metal. Reshaping each of them into a thick, short blade, he slashed and carved away at the thigh flesh of the monster, since his piercing blows had proven ineffective.

He launched himself into a series of spinning slashes, then each designed to inflict as much damage as possible. Each of his heavy blades were slammed as deep as possible into the mountain of flesh before him. He’d once again expected to draw blood or strike bone, but each slash cut clean through, leaving wide gaping chunks of flesh that merely sloughed off the creature and onto the group before him. As the creature wound up for another attack, Kalvin even went the extra mile and drove both of his wide, thick blades into where the monster’s knee should have been located. He twisted as he pulled his blades free, hoping to tear at something critical and at least hobble the behemoth. More piles of flesh and muscles hit the ground at his feet, but not a single cry of pain, or roar of anger came from the monster in response. Only a low rumbling hiss of hunger echoed out of its gaping maw.

The club fist of the creature blurred forward, striking at Kalvin once more and signaling that he needed to get the heck out of dodge. His head tilted to the left, catching sight of the incoming punch. Rather than step back Kalvin went on the offensive once again. Rolling forward, he let his blades dissolve as the heavy fist slammed into the ground where he once stood. Successfully dodging the attack that would have turned him into a paste on the ground wasn’t enough though. As the shockwave soon blasted out, the wave of force tore Kalvin out of his roll, picking him up and flinging him forward, directly between the monster’s legs. Soaring through the legs of the monster, Kalvin’s hands stretched out to reveal his newly formed chains. Each of the long, black chains shot out from his hands, wrapping around the fleshy pillars as he flew between them. Just behind the behemoth he came to an abrupt halt, as he reached the ends of the chain, which thankfully saved him from slamming into the ground. Nearly dislocating his shoulders by the move was the cost, as the chains nearly ripped his arms out of their sockets.

When he could extend the chains and safely lower himself to the ground, the monstrosity was just lifting its fist back up from the crater it had left behind. Kalvin grinned wildly, baring his teeth in a feral smile as he flooded his muscles with the Deathly Energy he’d stolen from the battle at the mountain. He pulled on the chains and let them slowly slice into the monster’s legs intent on kneecapping the beast. Just as Kalvin felt like things were finally going his way in this fight, he saw the other survivor, his fellow Climber, Abigail, who was currently sprinting across the battlefield, charging directly at the hulk of flesh.

Chapter 58

Kalvin’s stomach dropped at the sight of Abigail’s charge and the realization that if he successfully kneecapped the creature, its massive upper body would topple onto her and  flatten her like a pancake. Immediately he dissolved a chain, letting it fall into nothingness and lessening the pressure on the behemoth's right leg. A new chain emerged from his palm, growing and twisting as he focused his mind on perfectly controlling the chain as if he would guide a snake. His arm remained perfectly still as he poured in more and more power, strengthening the metal links while guiding it to lash out at the behemoth.

Even with his power controlling the chain and the increasing drain on his energy reserves, the first attempt at his new plan completely failed. The heavy chain bounced off the creature’s arm as it straightened and turned towards the new prey approaching it. Kalvin bit down on the insides of his cheeks, using the sharp influx of pain to help narrow his focus. His vision collapsed, the edges slowly becoming blurry and dim as he zoomed in on his target, the flesh monstrosity’s shoulder. 

This time his aim struck the mark. The large links of metal slammed into the top of the creature’s shoulder and coiled down, snaking under its armpit and slowly wrapping down its arm. Kalvin poured out more energy, focusing on the chain and causing it to grow and twist like a snake, each movement draining more and more of his reserves as the chain grew heavier and longer. When it had finally snaked down to its wrist the behemoth’s arm twitched. It had never shown a sign of discomfort or pain, yet now as it struggled to lift the arm that was wrapped in thick chains, it let out a grunt of annoyance.

That was all Kalvin needed to know his plan might work. His eyes briefly darted towards Abigail who was nearing the striking range of the creature. Her fists faintly glowed with a golden light and a determined expression was plastered upon her face. Once ‌the behemoth had spotted the charging Climber, Kalvin waited till he saw its rippling, exposed muscle flex. As it prepared to strike at Abigail and most likely crush her, Kalvin let the chains transform. Suddenly the heavy chains were no longer small links of metal pressed together, but a thick, tightly woven cord of wire, barbed wire. Kalvin gave up on using his physical strength to match the giant’s, even abandoning concentration on his other chain in order to control and manipulate the single wire. The spiked barbs dug into the flesh of the monster, even as the metal continued to condense and sharpen, until finally the behemoth attempted to swing its arm despite the restraints.

There was a moment of pain, a sudden red hot stab into Kalvin’s mind caused his concentration to slip and the chains to loosen as the behemoth’s pure physical strength tested his conviction and a battle of will vs might played out across the monstrous arm. Kalvin knew what to do though. He sank deeper into his memories, the feelings of pain, the groggy moments where the drugs in the hospital had worn off, or procedures where they just hadn’t bothered to use anesthesia as those cursed people experimented on him. The feeling of being helpless, of wanting to die, of knowing he should have died a long time ago…  Kalvin found those memories, that grim, ugly mindset and dragged all of it to the core of his being, shoving it at his Ability, at the necrotic energy as if to say, “Here! See! I know everything about death!” 

Much to Kalvin’s surprise, his attempt worked. The pain in his skull subsided, and even when the behemoth pulled harder, the manifested wire remained stable. With the new link to his Ability established, and those bitter memories fresh in his mind, Kalvin reached out with his will, sending a command to the metallic wire. The black tightly wound metal responded immediately. The thick cord with its sharp spikes melted back into the oily black substance for a moment, before reforming into a thin flexible cord of razor wire. The heavy restraints and weight that had been holding back the muscular monster were now gone, and it swung its fist down at the offending ant before it, Abigail.

Kalvin’s new control over the wire enabled it to remain perfectly in place even as the giant punched. The razor wire cut and sliced through the arm of the monstrosity. Instead of being flattened by the blow, Abigail’s final few feet of her charges were bombarded with bloodless chunks of meat, flesh, and muscle that exploded across the battlefield. An unbothered, determined Abigail slammed her golden, glowing fist into the ankle of the monstrosity and, to Kalvin’s shock, melted away the muscle. Like a hot knife through butter, each of Abigail’s punches swept away the fleshy appendage and the massive creature soon wobbled on one leg. 

With only one leg and one arm left on the massive being, Kalvin let out a sigh of relief. His powers were drained as all the reserves he’d saved from the mountain earlier had been spent. He let his creations fade to nothing and allowed his body to sag. He’d used everything in that one strike, not even holding back enough energy to keep his left side from aching. It had been so long since he’d truly felt the weight of his bones, or the slow, stuttering beat of his rotting heat. Weariness overwhelmed Kalvin then, and as his gaze lifted to watch the end of the fight, he thought, It’ll be alright. She can win.

The Tower proved how sinister it was in that moment, for just as he believed that they could overcome this new threat, reality set in once again. Something Kalvin had completely overlooked, yet knew to be dangerous, reared its ugly head, or in this case, tongue. As Abigail stood, poised to ready a second flurry of blows, the gaping mouth on the creature’s chest and its slobbering tongue snapped out, coiling around her body like a boa constrictor before pulling her into the dark aperture, like a frog would a fly. When its mouth closed, a sickening crunch sounded through the cemetery. To add insult to injury, the wounded creature then turned towards the weakened Kalvin, whose body refused to move. The weight of his bones prevented him from moving, and the lack of power made it so his only option was to stare death in the face as he moved onto the next life.

Chapter 59

Kalvin woke to the blessedly familiar taste of dirt, his mind still shaking as phantom pain from the feeling of being crushed to death ran through his body. He lay there in the grave, savoring the cold earth against his back, and the taste of fresh air for several long moments before pulling himself out of his grave, refreshed and ready for another life. Father Malkovich would be alive this time, he could find out what happened to the others, and even practice with the new uses he’d just found for his Ability. First though, he had two pressing things to take care of before heading anywhere, clothes and power. Thankfully Kalvin knew just where to find them.

Kalvin stumbled over to Leon’s grave, finding it easily despite the dense mist. The trickles of necrotic energy spewing out from the unfortunate man’s corpse were like a beacon for Kalvin’s Necrotic Energy Manipulation. As he came to a stop above the grave, Kalvin drained the thin wisps of energy out of the body. It felt like a paltry amount compared to the vast battlefield or pile of corpses Kalvin had become accustomed to in the last life. It was still more than enough energy for him to suppress the ache in his left side and convince his skeletal frame to move normally for long enough to ‘borrow’ Leon’s pants and boots.

Once he was dressed and empowered, Kalvin wiped off the last bits of grave dirt from his face and new clothes, before walking towards the center of the cemetery. Kalvin had only taken a few steps when he realized there was something missing. Every previous restart had been accompanied by the same few things, the taste of dirt in his mouth, the ache of his dead left side, and the screams of his fellow survivors. Yet now, there was silence. Even as Kalvin neared the entrance of the graveyard, no screams rang out, no silhouettes shuffled through the mists, no confused shouting, or people demanding an explanation.

Gazing out through the iron bars, Kalvin found the hateful, hungry red eyes waiting in the mists beyond, and even when he swept his senses out, trying to search for any signs of deathly energy, Kalvin found nothing changed. No new sources of power had appeared. The mists inside the graveyard cleared then, revealing the mausoleum and shortly after, Izanami drifted into view. Her approach was heralded, as always, by a howling wind. With vision inside the cemetery restored, and the bloody bride who served as his primary source of information now accessible, Kalvin strode towards the floating woman, only to freeze as he finally spotted another survivor.

It wasn’t who Kalvin had expected, though. A spark of pain flickered into his mind at that. Who was I expecting? His fingers flew up to clutch at his head as the unexpected thought triggered another bout of searing agony. Kalvin’s fingers massaged at his temples as tears came to his eyes, his thoughts slowly turning away from the source of the discomfort, when something occurred to him. This isn’t the first time this has happened. He groaned as a series of fireworks pounded against his forehead at the realization. 

The lone figure walked towards him slowly, her fists raised in a guard position as she edged closer to a groaning Kalvin. “Are you… Are you okay?”

Kalvin’s swirling maelstrom of thoughts ended abruptly as he lifted his head and stared at a concerned, but cautious Abigail. He didn’t respond immediately. Kalvin sucked down a deep breath, and using Abigail as a focal point, he began trying to sort out his memories, testing each to see which were safe, and which paths lead to agony. Abigail fighting the monstrous behemoth with him, resulted in no pain. Abigail harvesting a mountain of monsters for their cores, which he somehow knew she hadn’t slain by herself, mild discomfort. What had happened at the start of his last life, and anything before he’d left to help Father Malkovich? Searing pain. 

Even when he tried to think about who had been screaming in the graveyard or who he had expected to see upon stumbling to the entrance, Kalvin’s mind revolted. Each questing thought brought with it a new stabbing sensation directly into his forehead, till finally he was on his knees, tears streaming down his face as his fingernails clawed at his temples trying to ease the pain.

“Are you okay?” Abigail’s voice came again, startling Kalvin out of his fugue state and reminding him that he had never answered her last question. His reaction to her presence must have seemed insane.

“I-I’m fine,” Kalvin awkwardly stammered out an answer, while trying to focus on Abigail and suppressing his curiosity in order to diminish the pain.

His answer, despite how shaky it was, seemed to pacify Abigail as she dropped her fists from their guard position and her face took on a concerned expression as she inched closer. Not only that, but as Kalvin focused on Abigail and pushed away his unnecessary thoughts, the pain diminished.

“What’s going on here? I was just finishing my paper and laying down, then I woke up in a grave. Is this some kind of sick joke?” Abigail asked angrily as she glanced around. When her eyes settled onto Izanami, she lifted a shaky finger and followed up with another far less demanding question, “W-what’s that?”

Kalvin opened his mouth to explain, but found no words forthcoming as he struggled with how he could possibly reassure someone who had woken up to being buried alive. Alone in a strange cemetery, except for a screaming madman, and face to face with the clearly dead and floating bride. Thankfully though, Izanami, as always, knew just what to say,

“Greetings. I am known as Izanami. Please let me be the first to welcome you into the Tower of Sheol, and congratulate you on becoming a Climber.”

“T-tower? C-climber? Oh god, I’m in a Black Tower, aren’t I,” Abigail murmured frantically, as her eyes went wide as panic set in.

Chapter 60

It wasn’t long before Abigail bounced back from the news that she was inside a Tower and had been made a Climber. Her face still wore a grave expression, but as Kalvin struggled to sort through and test his memories, the young woman interrogated the Guide, asking a long list of questions and uncovering in five minutes what it had taken Kalvin to figure out for himself in twice as many lives.

When she was finished quizzing Izanami, Abigail wandered back towards Kalvin, standing beside him as she muttered to herself and tapped at her Status Screen. “So the only Ability I can access right now is almost assuredly useless until I can invest a large amount of time into it, and the only way to get stronger is going to be by fighting enemies that should appear, eventually.”

“Not necessarily,” Kalvin murmured as he straightened out and wiped his eyes clean. “If you knew what the colors meant you could shortcut some of the time investment, and those enemies will not be appearing eventually. They are already here.”

Kalvin jerked his body to face the entrance and pointed towards the small, ugly undead monsters who were just scampering into the graveyard. It was difficult to hold both his ugly memories of death in place, while keeping his mind focused on the task at hand to not accidentally send a surge of agony into his mind. That mental struggle wouldn’t matter though. He’d been able to fight these cretins before he’d understood his power, back when he’d still been an atrophied shell of a human being. Now with his power commanding his bones and flesh to move and match his still living half, this fight would be a piece of cake.

There was only one problem, Abigail. The dark-haired woman had a concerned expression on her face, yet as Kalvin advanced towards the monsters, she followed. Idly, Kalvin wondered how she would fare without Thames’ sword, only to have his concentration and focus shattered as it suddenly felt like a chisel was being driven into his frontal lobe. Who is Thames? The thought crashed through Kalvin’s mental scape and sent a web of cracks across his psyche. His vision darkened and soon he fell forward, landing face first on the ground before the wave of monsters had even reached the graveyard. A final thought drifting through his muddled mind just before he plunged into unconsciousness, I’m really setting the record for fastest death in this life.

Waking up covered in dirt was getting normal for Kalvin, but waking up with his face pressed into the mud was unusual. He lifted himself to his feet, prying his face and limbs out of the earth as he took in his surroundings. The familiar sight of the graveyard jogged his memory. He’d been about to fight off the first wave when… something had happened, but that would have left —  ABIGAIL! Kalvin whirled around, his gaze desperately searching for his only companion, while clinging to a hope that she had somehow survived till now.

It didn’t take him long to find her. As near the entrance of the cemetery, Abigail was currently in the gory process of harvesting a small mound of ghoul bodies. As Kalvin staggered towards her, his foot slapped against the muddy ground and Abigail spun around, bringing both blood-covered fists up. Upon taking in Kalvin’s disheveled and mud-soaked appearance, Abigail slowly dropped her fists. “You’re awake? I kind of… Well, I kind of thought you were dead. You are still alive, right? Or did you become one of those monsters? You didn’t get bitten, right?”

Kalvin blinked at each of the rapid questions that hurled his direction and vehemently shook his head. “Of course I’m alive! No, I haven’t been bitten. What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well… You know those old horror movies. When someone’s bitten, they turn into a zombie. Normally at the worst time possible.”

“Yeah, but I’m clearly alive and talking to you right now, so isn't that me, not a zombie!?” Kalvin asked exasperatedly.

“Well… yeah, but after you collapsed, I checked your pulse. Man, I hate to tell you, but you don’t have one. So you tell me what I’m supposed to think when a guy who didn’t have a pulse a couple of minutes ago suddenly rises from the dead and starts shambling around,” Abigail countered sharply.

Kalvin stopped moving and immediately brought two fingers to the right side of his neck, holding them there and lightly pressing against the large artery there. Even after counting to ten, he felt nothing. He really didn’t have a pulse.

“Well, fuck. I really don’t have a pulse,” Kalvin said as he plopped down on the ground a few feet from Abigail. “Not a clue what it means, but I can promise you that I’m not a zombie. I am not an experiment, and I won’t bite you or anyone.”

Abigail crossed her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes as she fixed Kalvin with a long, hard stare. When she finally spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper, yet each word contained an icy steel. “Can I trust you?”

Kalvin leaned back from the sudden, heavy question, giving Abigail’s query the serious consideration it deserved before finally nodding. “Of course.”

“Good. Take these.” Abigail passed over four small red monster cores. “I don’t know if you were listening earlier when the Guide was talking, but these can help us Level up and grow stronger now that we are Climbers. Have you accessed your Status Screen yet?”

Kalvin accepted the cores from Abigail, before nodding once more and pulling up his Status Screen.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 1: 0%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 1/1 (10)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

It had been a long time since he’d read over everything. The pitiful numbers and the level 1 seemed to taunt him, a constant reminder that no matter how far he progressed in this Tower he’d always be set back to the start.

“What Ability did you get? Hopefully something useful,” Abigail asked as she watched Kalvin gaze at the space before him.

“Necrotic Energy Manipulation.” Kalvin answered automatically.

“Like… Death energy? Maybe that explains your lack of a pulse? Can it be used in combat?”

Kalvin hesitated before answering. It was nice to not have to explain everything, to not have to be protecting someone or trying to fill someone in on everything they’d missed. So rather than explain everything his Ability could do, or how he knew what it did, he took the easy route. “I think it’ll be useful in combat.”

Abigail let out a sigh of relief upon hearing Kalvin’s answer and didn’t press him on why he’d hesitated. “That's lucky. My starting Ability seems to be more related to support or utility than combat. Hopefully, I can get lucky with a level up and get something useful from these next few waves. Swallow those cores, pick your level up, and help me with the next wave when you can.”

Kalvin didn’t love being told to swallow his medicine, or worse, the small red cores that resembled pills, but as Abigail finished speaking and walked towards the entrance where another wave of monsters was appearing, he didn’t protest. The sight of the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls brought a trickle of adrenaline to his veins, and for a moment it felt like his heart was beating once again. He slammed the cores into his mouth, swallowing them instantly, and automatically pressing the Random button that appeared on the screen before him.

Kalvin didn’t bother to process the level up reward, instead he dismissed the screen and once more dredged up those morbid memories, clinging to them as he followed behind Abigail to confront the next monster wave.

Chapter 61

The fight against a half-dozen Lesser Ravenous Ghouls was brutal. Kalvin struggled to maintain his concentration and found himself unable to manifest anything with his Ability. His mind constantly wandered back towards the reason for the changes in the graveyard, and more importantly, the changes to himself. That caused his punches to land softer than intended, his blocks to falter, and the timing on his dodges to be off. After everything was said and done, he’d barely put two of the undead goblins down, while Abigail with just her fists and no combat power wiped out the majority.

After his worst combat performance inside the Tower ever, Kalvin sagged against the fence, letting the iron bars dig into his flesh. He struggled to reign in the pounding headache and suppress the memories of strangers, with their faces grayed out, fighting alongside him. What is happening!? I passed out before the first wave even appeared, and was almost useless during the next. Have I lost my mind from dying so many times?

Kalvin was still processing his grim, internal monologue when Abigail walked towards him with a concerned expression on her face. 

“I know I just asked this, but seriously, are you okay?” She asked softly.

“I-I-I don’t know. Honestly, I wish I knew what was happening, but every time I try to understand what’s wrong, or what I’m missing, the pain is just… too much. I’ve dealt with soul-crushing, bone-cracking, and heart-wrenching agony before, but this… It feels like a million tiny bombs going off inside my brain anytime I think of a stray thought. Even talking about it sends tiny fiery signals pulsing into my head, warning me to keep my curiosity in check, or I’ll suffer once more.”

Abigail leaned forward and stared at Kalvin’s head, orbiting around it as if looking for a lump or a hole in it. Finally she pulled back and met Kalvin’s eyes.

“I hate to ask, but given what you are wearing… Did you escape from a psych ward?” Abigail asked, her body subtly tensing as if preparing for a physical response instead of a verbal one.

Kalvin merely sighed and shook his head. “No. I was in a normal hospital, not a psych ward. Plus, this just started happening when I woke up here.”

The tension in Abigail’s body didn’t immediately subside. Instead she stared at him for a long moment, before letting her shoulders slump and letting her gaze slide off him in order to stare at the space before her.

“Hmm. I might be able to help. Remember how I said my Ability was a utility one? Well, it's called Lesser Cleansing of Radiance. It might remove whatever is affecting you. It’s just… I don’t know where to start.”

Kalvin winced as he remembered the scorching, golden energy that had flowed into him when Abigail had last used her Ability on him. After weighing the hateful radiance versus the constant stabbing into his mind, he shifted and extended his right arm towards Abigail.

“Do it. Just don’t waste your time on cyan, pink, or teal. Those colors are useless,” Kalvin answered as he tried to remember what other colors Abigail had experimented on previously.

“Cyan, pink, or teal?” An amused Abigail asked while tapping at the air before her to activate her Ability. Her gaze then swung down to Kalvin’s offered hand, and she laughed softly. “I don’t think that’ll be a problem. You only have one — no! two colors in your entire body.”

Kalvin frowned at that. He was having trouble remembering things, but he was sure that, when he’d helped Abigail to uncover uses for her Ability, there had been nearly a dozen colors chosen. There were even more when they’d retreated to the darkness of the mausoleum. She’d made it sound like there were a nearly infinite number of shades and colors to try during the process as well. His lips quirked to the side, watching as Abigail’s now glowing fingers neared his wrist, and just before she made contact, he pulled back., “So what colors do you see?”

Abigail paused, letting her gaze sweep over Kalvin once, twice, and then three times “Gray. Almost all gray, a thick blanket of gray motes centered on your head and extending out to every part of your body. Right about there though,” Abigail pointed towards the center of Kalvin’s chest before continuing, “is a ball of darkness, as black as the night sky.”

Kalvin arched an eyebrow at the descriptions. They seemed a little too fantastical. In his last life, Abigail had told that she’d seen a few dozen gray lights in his head, but now his body was almost completely consumed by the gray motes? That sounded wrong. His eyes narrowed as he stared at Abigail. One of them had to be lying.

What if she was bitten? Infected? What if it’s a trick? A dark part of Kalvin’s psyche whispered to him.

He shook his head, clearing away the dark cobwebs of suspicion that he’d allowed to creep in.

I have to trust her. Worst-case scenario, she's lying and I’ll come back to life knowing that. A chill ran down his spine as at the same time he resolved to trust Abigail. He glimpsed the floating white dress of the one being he thought might actually be able to end this cycle. Slowly, he extended his right hand to Abigail once more, his eyes locked on the distant form of Izanami as he gave Abigail the go ahead.

“Do it.”

Chapter 62

The first cleansing made Kalvin realize how much he might have underestimated how much it had hurt previously. As Abigail purged something from his body, the golden radiance bathed his flesh and sent fiery spurts of lava into his veins. He struggled to keep his eyes open, and his body perfectly still, while every fiber of his being screamed for him to run from the scorching golden light. Something in his expression, or how his jaw clenched, or his muscles tensed caused Abigail to pull back and ask in a worried tone what was quickly becoming Kalvin’s least favorite question. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Kalvin said between deep breaths, taking advantage of the respite to suck down air and steel his nerves before extending his hand towards Abigail and gesturing for her to continue.

Abigail looked ready to refuse to continue, her lips parted and Kalvin could feel the rejection about to leave her mouth. So he glanced up and shook his head. His determined, unwavering gaze met her expression of concern and worry. 

“I’m fine. Please keep going,” Kalvin said softly, but firmly.

Still Abigail hesitated, her eyes searching Kalvin’s for several long seconds, before pressing her hands to his wrist and activating her Ability. Kalvin felt the searing heat on his arm, before he even saw the golden light shine from Abigail’s hands. As an inferno engulfed his arm, Kalvin leaned back against the cold iron bars of the fence and let his eyes close. 

Kalvin let his mind drift from memory to memory, blotting out the constant scorching sensation on his arm, while trying to find if anything had changed now that Abigail was cleansing him. Nothing out of the ordinary jumped out at him though, so Kalvin let the images flash faster and faster, hopping through each memory rapidly hoping to discover anything. A scene of him holding his grandma’s hand while attending his brother’s funeral. His grandma explaining what necrosis and the other, far-too-large words meant to his younger self. His grandpa taking him on walks in the misty morning, despite both of their body’s failing, his because of age and Kalvin’s because of illness. A young blue-haired man with an overwhelming amount of optimism explaining to a weathered, tired Kalvin what Necromancy was. Doctor Wilken’s pockmarked face smirking down at Kalvin as he lay on an operating table, the cruel doctor pressing an anesthesia mask against Kalvin’s face and forcing him unconscious.

Blue hair? The thought pulled Kalvin out of his reverie and startled him awake. The first thing he noticed was the burning sensation had stopped, and the second thing was the scent of blood drifting across the air. He was just about to force himself to stand when Abigail stepped into view.

“Good, you're awake. Did the cleansing help?” Abigail asked as she crouched down besides Kalvin.

He didn’t immediately answer. His eyes lingering on her blood-covered hands and the small, stone dagger now tucked into her waistband. Abigail, noticing his gaze, smiled down at him. “I finally got a combat skill! Well, kind of. Primeval Blade turned out to be a literal stone age knife. It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, but it did the job and it made the harvesting easier.”

When Abigail finished, she produced several monster cores from her pocket and counted them while separating them into two piles. The sight of the cores combined with the bloody scent lingering in the air clued Kalvin in on what had happened.

“I passed out and lay here while you fought off the monsters, huh?” Kalvin mused softly, as Abigail set a small pile of cores in front of him.

“It’s fine! Nothing to really worry about. Just a bunch of small fries.” Abigail said, while fixing Kalvin with a firm gaze. “Now don’t change the subject! You didn’t answer my question. Did the cleansing help?”

“I… think so. I remember something, but trying to focus on it causes more pain to appear.” 

“Great! I’m glad my starting Ability is useful for something. I can keep cleansing the gray motes all the way up your arm then.” Abigail excitedly shuffled closer as she finished speaking.

Kalvin grimaced slightly in response to her enthusiasm, feeling rather reluctant to suffer once again, and a bit guilty about the pile of cores she was giving him.

“We can wait on the treatment. Instead let me help you with the next wave first,” Kalvin said as he stood.

Abigail leaned forward and pressed a hand against Kalvin’s shoulder, not activating her Ability to try and force him down. She just let it rest there as she stared into his eyes and shook her head.

“You’ve got something going on. Let’s fix it first, then you can help me fight. If you passed out during the battle again, I’m not sure I could save you.”

Kalvin slumped back against the iron bars as he processed Abigail’s response and its underlying meaning. A quick glance up at Abigail revealed no hesitation on her face. Her calm expression and relaxed posture illustrated a level of confidence in her own capabilities. Slowly Kalvin nodded his head and let his eyes close once more. As he settled in to welcome the scorching radiance once more, he couldn’t help but murmur words of caution.

“Be careful in the next few waves. New monsters will show up. Pay attention to any monsters that have unnaturally long limbs. They’ll try to sneak attack you or pierce you with their tongue.”

Kalvin felt Abigail’s hands settle onto his wrist, and after a moment her voice drifted down to him. “We'll need to talk about how you know that later. For now, I hope this helps.”

Then Kalvin was pulled arm first back into the inferno.

Chapter 63

Kalvin woke to darkness, a heavy blanket pressing down against his body. He shifted slightly, trying to roll over in his bed, only to feel dirt cascading down his body instead of the heavy sheets of the hospital. His eyes jerked open, and he jolted upright, his head swiveling around in a panic, taking in the shallow grave he suddenly found himself. It had finally happened! He'd been thrown out of the hospital and left to die! 

His right arm clawed at the top of the grave and slowly he pulled his feeble form up and out. His left side ached and weighed him down as the hospital's drugs wore off. The perpetual fog that always filled his mind from their ‘medicine’ drifted away and let him think clearly for the first time in a long time. The mists around his grave made it almost impossible to see, but if Kalvin could find a path, he could crawl towards the gate to find help or if he got lucky, a groundskeeper would spot him.

He’d only made it a few feet from his grave when a shrieking wind tore through the cemetery, quickly followed by a shockwave that lifted him off the ground and flung his ailing body backwards, slamming him into the iron bars of the fence. All he saw before landing face first in the dirt was a distant flash of golden radiance.

A stinging sensation ran up Kalvin’s arm. His body spasmed abruptly and his eyes flicked open. He’d barely gasped down a single breath of air when Abigail stepped into his vision, blotting it out temporarily as she dragged the corpse of a large, familiar creature towards Kalvin and dumped it in front of him. The unnaturally long limbs, and the sharp tongue hanging out of its mouth marked it as a Diegheist. It was the creature Kalvin had just warned Abigail about.

“We need to talk,” Abigail said in an icy voice as she crouched down beside Kalvin.

When she moved closer, the smell of blood intensified and Kalvin’s gaze darted towards the source, a large bleeding gash on Abigail’s left side. 

“You’re injured,” Kalvin stated the obvious, numbly.

“I should have listened to your warning. Honestly, that’s what I wanted to talk about. How did you know that thing was coming next?” Abigail asked while gesturing towards the Diegheist.

Kalvin frowned at Abigail’s harsh tone and shook his head. “I doubt you’d believe me. Wouldn’t you rather just consider it an Ability given to me from my level ups?”

“Well, I could believe that. Except you have used none of the cores I’ve given you,” Abigail said as she pointed to a small mountain of cores by Kalvin’s feet. “In fact, besides the first four cores I gave you, I don’t think you’ve leveled up once the entire time you've inside the Tower.”

“Not this life at least,” Kalvin murmured softly.

“What was that?” Abigail said as she leaned forward.

“Nothing. It’s just my Mana and Health are so low that it won’t matter if I level up, I’d need to consume a massive amount of cores just to raise my Mana to a point where I could use an Ability I got from the cores. It’s just not worth it to use the cores.” 

“That’s my problem! How do you know what you’ll get from the cores and level ups? How do you, a random guy in a hospital, with the worst migraine ever, know detailed information about Climber levels, Tower monsters, Status screens, and stats!?” Abigail said, with each word growing in volume till by the end she was shouting down at Kalvin.

“Oh,” Kalvin replied numbly.

“Oh? Oh is all you have to say? Come on, man! Tell me what’s going on!”

Kalvin winced and nodded in response. “I’d like to tell you. I’m just not sure you’d believe me.”

“I just woke up buried alive in a grave, dug my way out of it, took advice from an undead bride, am fighting off creepy, tongue monsters, and am now a Climber. All within like half an hour. So I’m pretty sure whatever you are about to say, I can handle it,” Abigail said firmly. 

“And if I said I’m stuck in a time loop, where I’m doomed to die and wake back up in that grave every time?”

Abigail scowled and started to say something, but hesitated. Instead she glanced behind her to the large corpse of the Diegheist. When she turned back around to Kalvin she chose her words carefully, each one coming out slowly and surely. “Is there any way you can prove that?”

Kalvin considered her question, reminiscing over their previous interactions until something popped out at him. “This happened before! You told me that if I need you to believe me, that I should tell you that your brother’s name was Bruce and your neighbor’s name was Stacy.”

Abigail’s scowl vanished instantly as Kalvin mentioned her brother’s name, and when he stumbled into her neighbor’s name shortly after, her face became a perfectly blank slate and her eyes grew distant. When she didn’t immediately answer, Kalvin worried that he’d gotten the names wrong. He opened his mouth to explain and apologize, but Abigail lifted her hand and held her palm up, gesturing for him to stop.

Kalvin waited anxiously for what felt like forever, till finally Abigail, in a deadly serious, flat voice, said, “I believe you. Tell me what’s going to happen next and what I need to do.”

Chapter 64

Kalvin had spent the better part of two monster waves unloading everything he knew to Abigail. Telling her about the small town, the mountain, the Guide’s actions, about Leon’s grave, and even about his slowly returning memories. Before each wave began, Abigail sent a wave of a cleansing radiance into Kalvin, which ‌brought more clarity to Kalvin and lessened the stabbing migraines that tore into him sporadically throughout his explanations.

When Kalvin finally finished telling his tale, Abigail narrowed her eyes and frowned.

“You really know nothing about Climbers do you? Not only that, but you’ve been repeating this loop over and over and still do not know where the exit is? What exactly have you been doing?”

Kalvin stiffened and went on the defensive. “Look! I didn’t exactly get to do much at the start. I could barely move and barely fight. And it’s only been like twenty loops so far. The guy in that movie you mentioned about the groundhog must have had 1000s of days to master everything. And of course I know nothing about Climbers!” 

“Ugh…” Abigail threw her hands up in the air, relenting as she switched topics. “Fine, but what about the others? You said you remembered other people right? A blue-haired guy, a blonde guy, and someone who complained a lot? Did they escape the Tower or move on to the next floor? Where are they?”

“I don’t know where they are, and I think… I think there should be others. I can’t put faces or names on all the people, but there was at least… Ten? Maybe more people here.”

“Well, with what you’ve told me, it doesn’t sound like they’ve escaped. It feels more likely that they met a fate similar to the Leon you told me about, where they were permanently deleted.”

Kalvin frowned at Abigail's answer and couldn’t help himself from thinking, Could I have prevented that if I’d done things differently? What if Abigail was trapped in the loop instead of me? Would she have done better?

Abigail must have seen Kalvin’s expression shift into one of grim contemplation because she followed up with, “I think you’ve done a great job in other areas. Your combat power alone has to place you as one of the top Ranked Climbers in the country and being capable enough to complete a Climber Quest is no easy feat. It’s a shame you weren’t able to claim the reward though.”

Kalvin nodded in response, agreeing with Abigail that it was a shame he hadn’t gotten some amazing reward or legendary weapon. He privately thought that it was better to give Father Malkovich his parting wish and let the man pass in peace with his burdens lifted. Abigail wasn’t done talking about Kalvin’s adventures though. She leaned forward and in a much harsher voice grilled him for his mistakes.

“Here’s what needs to change. First, you need to stop being such a dumbass about leveling up! You need to consume as many cores as possible every life, get familiar with every Ability possible, and preferably choose Random each time. So far from what you said, at worst you get a regular level up, at best you could get something incredible. There is no reason to not do that every time. ALSO, you need to be practicing with other Climber Abilities! Your Necrotic Energy Manipulation sounds interesting, and it seems like it’s gotten you this far through your familiarity with the energy and dedication to it, but you are completely ignoring what makes other Climbers so powerful. It’s their variety of skills and synergy, and the way their Abilities work together.”

Kalvin opened his mouth to protest, but Abigail shook her head. “No. I don’t want to hear it. You just told me about your most recent death, where you came from a battlefield with hundreds of dead monsters, and then died to a single monster here. Are you seriously going to tell me not a single one of those monsters had cores, or that none of the twenty or more Abilities you could have received from harvesting those cores might have changed the outcome of the fight?”

Kalvin wanted to explain. He wanted to say that he didn’t have the time, or that he didn’t have the mana to use any new Abilities, or that using them instead of his unique Ability would have just killed him faster. As he glanced down to the pile of cores Abigail had previously deposited in front of him, all of his explanations just felt like excuses. He swallowed down his pride and reached down, grabbing a handful of the cores to consume. “Alright. What else?”

Abigail seemed surprised by Kalvin’s response, but only for a moment as she soon lifted three fingers. “First, you need more information. Ask the priest more questions next time you see him. Second, explore the other two places. The mountain seems like a great area to start, because you can explore it while defending the Guide so you don’t have to reset. And Third, you need to fix your memory issues. There’s no telling what you’ve forgotten or who. The best-case scenario is you get an Ability that lets you deal with it, because as it stands it might take days for my Lesser Cleansing of Radiance to eradicate the gray motes inside you. Worse, if something happens and you die, you might wake up and forget about this conversation, or even forget that you don’t remember things.”

Kalvin gulped as Abigail’s words sunk into him. He could be stuck in this same loop again and again, wandering around like a madman each life, unable to remember even basic things. The young man shivered at the idea of it, before pressing a handful of cores into his mouth and extending his arm towards Abigail. He swallowed down the cores and accepted the notifications before turning to watch as Abigail pressed her glowing golden hands against his skin. His voice was a low, determined growl as he bit back the pain. “Keep talking. If there was even the slightest thing I missed, or something I could have done better, tell me.”

Chapter 65

Kalvin endured the searing sensation brought by the cleansing, the relentless flood of level up screens, and Abigail’s nitpicking of everything he’d done wrong in the last few lives for nearly five minutes, at which point his attention slipped. Upon noticing the change in Kalvin’s demeanor, Abigail stopped pouring her power into him and sat back, fixing him with a concerned look.

“Are you o—.”

“Stop!” Kalvin raised his hand and cut off Abigail, knowing perfectly well what question she was about to ask for the umpteenth time. “I’m fine. I’m perfectly okay, I just… needed a breather from having lava injected into my veins.”

Abigail winced at the description and nodded somberly. The concerned look fell from her face as she worked to change the topic, excitement slipping into her voice briefly. “So what did you get from your randoms?”

Kalvin sighed and pulled up his Status Screen once more and read aloud what he’d seen appear with each Level up reward.

Dreadbolt (Common): Fire a projectile of twisted, malevolent energy to inflict minor damage to a creature. Each projectile has a slight chance to inflict a Frightened Condition on living creatures struck by Dreadbolt.

Cost: 5 Mana

Shineshadow Snarl (Rare): Emits a wave of light imbued with Necrotic energy from the user's mouth. Has a minor chance to inflict enemies with a Blindness Condition.

Cost: 2 Mana, increases by 2 mana every second used.

Duration: varies

+6 Health

+6 Mana

“So two Actives and a jumble of stats out of 5 levels? That’s not terrible at least. Now is Dreadbolt the same Ability you were telling me about before? The one that you had to practice with in order to aim?” 

“Yeah, it’s… The third time I’ve gotten this Ability, I think?” 

“Ideally you would have gotten a passive Ability that synergized with your Necrotic Energy Manipulation, but receiving an Active Ability that you are already familiar with and have practiced with proves my point that you should have been leveling up as much as possible. How about giving both of the Abilities a try before the next wave?” Abigail said, some of her excitement at the prospect of new Abilities slipping into her final few words.

Kalvin started to nod then stopped as a wisp of gray energy trickling out of the fog caught his attention. He turned towards the source and found on the other side of the bars, staring at him with its long, pointed tongue hanging out, a Diegheist. Calmly he stood and pushed away from the fence. Once upright he turned to face the monster, drawing Abigail’s attention to it. “I think it might be better to test them out on a live target.”

No sooner had he spoken than the thing leapt up and climbed the bars. Kalvin extended his right hand, palm facing the monster while tapping at the Status screen with his other hand. Just as the Diegheist head cleared the top of the fence, a bolt of dark light leapt not out of Kalvin’s hand as he’d expected, but out of the screen in front of him. The writhing ball of darkness struck the Diegheist in the face and sent it flying back.

The mists consumed the monster immediately, completely obscuring it from Kalvin’s view. The heavy thud that followed as something struck the ground hard informed Kalvin as to the Diegheist’s fate, but any further sounds were soon blocked out by the shrieks and screams of undead monsters that heralded ‌the next wave.

Kalvin stepped away from the fence, striding towards the oncoming array of ghouls as he lined up his vision, the screen, and a nearby monster, before pressing Dreadbolt on his Ability Screen once more. Nothing happened, instantly reminding Kalvin of why he’d never gotten much use out of the Active Abilities. That was his extreme lack of mana. Even with +6 from his level ups, he only had enough to cast the Ability a single time.

Still, Kalvin was determined to at least give Abigail’s advice a try, so he advanced on the monsters. With his mind now completely focused on the task at hand, time seemed to slow to a crawl around him. In combat every second mattered and even against foes he’d fought hundreds of times, he still had to be careful. The first ghoul proved just that by leaping for Kalvin the moment he stepped into its range and unexpectedly lunging toward his knees. He responded by flooding his skeletal left side with power and slamming his kneecap into the beast's face, crushing it instantly and flinging its corpse back into the horde.

His eyes drifted away from the horde, checking his Screen and lifting his hand to test out his next Ability. The timing couldn’t have been better, for just as Kalvin looked back to the monsters, a trio of Lesser Ravenous Ghouls launched themselves at him, claws and fangs extended. Kalvin responded by stepping forward, opening his mouth, and pressing down on the text that read, ‘Shineshadow Snarl’.

Kalvin didn’t know what he had expected from the unique sounding Ability, but the cone of silver light that forth from his mouth was not something he’d imagined in his wildest dreams. The silver light was edged with a familiar dark mist that led the charge as it spread out from him, washed over the trio of leaping undead. The dark edge of the wave swept over the goblins. It did not knock them aside or interrupt their momentum like the other more physical or elemental powers he’d seen. Kalvin watched as their jaws sagged, their limbs went limp and the undead monsters tumbled to the ground dead.

Kalvin was so impressed by the deadly power that he stood stunned as the deadly trio fell before him. His mouth hung open from shock and the wave continued to stretch out before him growing for several seconds. It just brushed against the next pair of monsters, causing them to topple to the ground as well, before, just as suddenly as the light had appeared, it disappeared.

A quick glance at his Status Screen told Kalvin why. He was completely out of mana. A look up at the battlefield before him, though, told him he wouldn’t need it. Only a single wobbling ghoul remained. A thick, gray mist clouded its eyes, the aftereffect of Kalvin’s Ability, causing it to blindly stagger around as it searched for its next meal. A single strike put the poor thing out of its misery and ended the battle.

Chapter 66

“That was awesome!” Abigail exclaimed as she knelt over a corpse and began the harvesting process.

“Thanks?” Kalvin said. Feeling slightly awkward about being complimented for his performance, he busied himself with the extraction process as well, rapidly forming threads of Necrotic energy that pierced into the monster’s chests and ripped out the cores. With the new use of his Ability, it took less than a minute for him to harvest the entire battlefield and hand the cores to Abigail.

“Useful,” Abigail said as she accepted the cores. After dividing the cores into two piles and pushing one back towards Kalvin, she asked, “have you ever received any Radiant-themed powers? Or I don’t know… less spooky Abilities?”

Kalvin blinked in surprise and pursed his lips as he considered her question. “What exactly do you mean by spooky?”

“Well, you told me you’ve previously received a skill that let you manipulate bones, and that you’ve gotten Dreadbolt before as well, and now your bad breath Ability… While it seemed incredibly effective in combat, it also looked like the kind of thing the villain in a movie would use as his finishing move on the heroes.” 

“Uh, I mean… I haven’t gotten any shiny or golden Abilities yet, sure, but there are a lot of Abilities out there. Who knows what I’ll get next time?” Kalvin said defensively.

“Hmm… What if it’s not random though? Like all of my Abilities so far are around utility, Radiance, and enhancement. Didn’t you say there was a guy who got some kind of pantry skill too? Did he ever receive a combat Ability after that?”

“Well no, but it doesn’t mean he couldn’t, right?” 

“I think whoever or whatever is in charge of the System assigns us Abilities they think are suited to us, or at least from a pool of Abilities that share the same trait. That has to be why you keep receiving the same kind of Abilities as you level.” 

Kalvin finished cleaning the cores he’d received from Abigail as he considered what she was proposing. He popped them into his mouth, watching his experience tick up to over 80%. “Say you are correct and the Abilities we receive aren’t truly random, but instead are pulled from a pool of Abilities that is specialized for each person. What use is there in knowing that?”

“Well, it means you only have to practice a few Abilities instead of literally every Ability ever. For example, Dreadbolt. You are more likely to receive it, so you can familiarize yourself with the Ability and when you get it in the future, you’ll already know how to utilize it. Also, you could continue to select the Random option until you get lucky and get higher rarity Abilities, or Abilities you prefer from your pre-selected pool.”

“I see. Assuming I find the way out, you are saying I could start the loop again and again until I got the Abilities I wanted or needed, then Climb to the next floor,” Kalvin said while privately wondering if they were planning for an escape that would never happen.

“Exactly!” Abigail said, while giving Kalvin a warm smile.

Kalvin gave a weak smile in return, trying not to let his darker thoughts ruin the moment. He redirected the conversation away from future lives and back towards the present. 

“So where does that leave us now?”

“For now?” Abigail looked towards the entrance and beyond,. She stared out at the mists, narrowing her eyes as if to pierce through them. “I’d like to continue getting rid of the gray motes inside of you. It sounds like I’ll need your help if giant cats made of bone, or titans of flesh start to appear. If you passed out because of your migraine or memory issues during those battles, it’s going to be a guaranteed game over for at least one of us.”

Kalvin nodded in response and went off to the side, pressing his back against the fence and sliding down to the ground before extending his arm to Abigail.

“Let’s start now, since the next wave won’t be here for a bit.”

Abigail followed behind Kalvin, crouching down and letting one bloodied hand settle onto Kalvin’s forearm, but not immediately starting the process. She took a deep breath. “I’d like to do an extra long Cleansing and I’d like you to stay here during the next few waves. It’s better for both of us in the long term if you focus on regaining your memory and I’ll be fine as long as it’s just the long-limbed monster and ghouls.”

Kalvin opened his mouth to protest, but Abigail lifted her free hand to cut him off. “Trust me on this. I can keep us safe. I can handle the next few monster waves. When it gets harder, I’ll stop the cleansing and we can fight together.”

A scowl spread across Kalvin’s face. He didn’t like the idea of sitting here doing nothing while Abigail took all the risk, so he tried to say as much, yet when the words came out, Kalvin’s control slipped, “I should be helping, not just sitting here like some invalid while you take care of me!”

He winced at the shout that he’d let out and immediately opened his mouth to apologize, knowing that what he’d just yelled had less to do with their current situation and more about his pre-Tower situation. Abigail once again beat him to the punch, though, her voice quiet and almost pleading. “I… get it. I understand what it must be like to watch other people fight, or feel helpless, or like you aren’t doing enough. If I told you about my family and my neighbors, you have to know about what happened to me, about my father. I know better than anyone how it feels to be on the sidelines, unable to do anything. But this once, please just trust me that it’s for the best. I trusted you when you told me about the loop. I’ve done everything I can to hold back my skepticism about your outlandish tale, so please… just trust me on this.”

Chapter 67

Kalvin had said nothing after Abigail’s request, only giving her a nod to let her know he’d heard her and extended his arm to start the process. With his eyes closed, Kalvin steeled himself against the pain and sank back into his memories. Visions of his grandparent’s house ran through Kalvin’s mind first. The long banister that he’d slid down repeatedly as a child until he’d bonked his head. Grandma’s kitchen with its constant scent of rosemary and sage, an ever-present warmth coming from her oven. Grandpa’s study, a faint smoke always drifting through the room, with its old leather furniture, and packed book shelves filled with ancient tomes making it the perfect place to curl up in after school.

The scenes changed, transitioning from fond memories of a lovely home, to moments Kalvin hadn’t wanted to witness the first time around, a funeral, a creaky attic with a broken mattress, and an endless slew of asylums. Kalvin rushed through those memories faster and faster, flicking through each scene until he found himself back in his room in the hospital. It was another visit from the old man, one of his few fully lucid moments inside that place, wasted by staring at the ceiling as the strange man recited a poem.

“Nothing beside remains. Round the decay

Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare

The lone and level sands stretch far away.”

Those fleeting lines were all Kalvin heard before he wrenched himself from the memory and onto the next.

Kalvin woke in his grave and immediately understood what he was watching was a memory. The Kalvin in the memory didn’t open his screen first, nor did he draw in any Necrotic Energy. He weakly shambled around the graveyard, until he settled into a spot near the entrance and collapsed like an empty bag of bones. He lurked there watching a blurry-faced blonde hair asshole shout orders at others in an attempt to muster a defense against the monsters. It was almost comical how quickly the blonde man’s bravado fled when he failed to block an attack and fell to one of the early waves, before even the Diegheists appeared. Only a few people showed any promise. The blue-haired man from before, and Abigail ended up holding the line when all else failed.

Soon after the blonde man fell, Kalvin rose from his seated position and held off the monsters while introducing himself to the blue-haired man who introduced himself as Sorren. Everything froze then, the Kalvin in the memory, the red eyes lurking in the mist, even the other Climbers all became perfectly still, as cracks appeared across the scene. They grew larger and larger, spider-webbing across Kalvin’s vision until everything shattered into a hundred tiny pieces, revealing an endless stretch of darkness just before pain stabbed into his mind once again.

When Kalvin woke from the dream, it wasn’t because of the pounding headache inside his skull, but because of the throbbing pain coming from his right hand. Glancing down, he saw the source immediately. His fingers had clenched at his palm so desperately that they had driven his fingernails in and broken skin. He tore a piece of the hospital gown off, wanting to stop the bleeding, but froze when he remembered his current circumstances. He was in a Tower with all kinds of unknown magical powers, and better yet, he had some of those same magical powers. 

Kalvin sat back and slowly pulled on the dark energy swirling inside of him. He dragged it from his center, guiding it down his right arm and slowly forced it into the wound. When he finished, a thin oily, black liquid covered each of the small indents and began to slowly pull the skin together. He watched and marveled at the process, comparing his current delicate control over the power to the struggling version of him he’d just seen in his memories. Not so long ago, he’d been unable to hold his concentration or use his power effectively for more than a second or two, but now… Wielding his unique Ability felt almost like a second nature to him. Didn’t Izanami say it could take years to learn an Energy Manipulation Ability? Yet it’s taken me only twenty lives? Less than a hundred hours? Kalvin thought with a proud smile.

With a slightly more positive outlook, compared to how he’d felt before the last cleansing and conversation with Abigail, Kalvin stood, eager to tell her about the newly remembered name, Sorren, and his regained memories. It was then that he noticed something was wrong. The graveyard was completely silent. Absent were the harsh sounds of battle, the wet noises of harvesting, and even the shrieking of the monsters. His lips curved down into a frown and his eyes narrowed as he surveyed the cemetery, knocking over something.

At his feet was an enormous pile of over sixty red cores that were currently scattering across the ground in front of him because of his carelessness. What piqued Kalvin’s interest wasn’t the monster cores rolling around in the dirt, but the words etched in the ground beneath them.

HEARD NOISE FROM SWAMP. CHECKING IT OUT. BE BACK SOON.

As Kalvin read the words, he felt his stomach drop and a sense of dread fill him. Those feelings were then reinforced as he heard several shrieks and a familiar ominous clanking noise. He let out a low groan, tearing his eyes away from the message in order to glare at the approaching monster wave led by a rapidly approaching Bone Sabertooth.

Chapter 68

Kalvin felt a sense of calm wash over him as he stared into the empty sockets of the bone sabertooth's skull. He strolled towards the entrance, putting himself between the large skeletal cat and Izanami, all while tugging on the countless streams of dark energy around him. Abigail had put in work while he’d been recovering from the cleansings. Mountains of corpses lay stacked around the graveyard. From each of them he tugged at the wisps of energy floating around them, guiding the energy towards him and fueling his Abilities.

Now wasn’t the time to test out new Abilities. With Abigail out of the cemetery and a skelly-cat to contend with, Kalvin pushed aside his Status Screen and once more let out his stored Necrotic Energy. Black ichor poured out of his palms, immediately coalescing into long lengths of black steel chains that clanked and coiled at his feet. He’d just finished solidifying and hardening the chains when the sabertooth charged through the entrance and into the cemetery proper. 

His right arm snapped up and he let the chain lash out, hoping for the blunt end of the chains to crash into the skeletal sabertooth skull, even as he let his left hand dangle limply at his side. The large predator dodged to the side at the last possible moment and clacked its teeth together, creating a hollow, chittering sound that felt like mocking laughter. It lunged forward then, rapidly closing the gap between them. Kalvin responded by snapping his chain up once more and then sweeping the chain in a smooth, horizontal line intended to crash into the side of the monster’s ribs and shear it in half.

The skeletal sabertooth wasn’t to be outdone though as it halted its charge to spring upwards, flying nearly three feet up off the ground and cleanly avoiding the chain whip. When it landed back down on its claws, its skull swung towards Kalvin in order for its empty eye sockets to look directly at him, as if taunting him once again. That pause in the battle was the clever creature’s undoing. A length of black chain erupted from the soft ground beneath the bone cat, like a snake springing at its prey. The sharp tip that Kalvin had used to burrow through the earth proved doubly useful as it pierced into the monster’s jaw and then tore through the top of its skull.

Kalvin finished the fight by commanding the chain to wrap around the monster’s neck and severing its head from its shoulders. All while continuing to use his right arm to flick his other chain whip back and forth across the entrance, shearing through the mindless ghouls, or occasional Diegheist that stumbled into the graveyard. When he was sure the skeletal predator was dead, Kalvin pulled on the chain with his mind, dragging the animated chain links back into his left palm and converting them back into the cold, deathly energy that fueled him.

The rest of the battle was routine. Kalvin kept the monsters at a distance and picked them off with large sweeps of the chain whip, never even giving them a chance to threaten him or Izanami. When the battle was over, he twirled his right arm and spun the chain onto it, wrapping it from wrist to elbow like a metal gauntlet. Then, ignoring the many corpses lying on the ground, the vast amount of energy yet to be drained, and the cores waiting for him to consume, Kalvin stepped out of the cemetery and began walking towards the swamp.

It wasn’t long before the ground beneath Kalvin changed, morphing into a soft, wet grass that tried to suck down his pilfered boots with each step. Soon he saw the outline of trees, large towering, twisted things that poked out of the fog. The further into the swamp he walked, the heavier the fog and the warmer the ground became. The first sign that something was wrong was a rancid scent that floated through the air as he neared the first tree. This close to the looming branches and twisting roots, Kalvin could identify the trees around him as some kind of mangrove. Unfortunately he could also identify where the smell was coming from.

The trunk of the closest mangrove had been split open to reveal a hollow cavity. Inside lay a woman with a familiar face. A stabbing sensation in Kalvin’s brain brought her name to the front, Tasha. He’d seen her before, recently, though not in the same life as the blue-haired man or blonde-haired man. His right fingers stretched out and pressed to her neck, checking for a pulse, confirming what he already knew from the blood pooling inside the tree trunk and the gray wisps of energy coming off her body. She was dead.

Chapter 69

Kalvin frowned, peering into the mangrove, unsure of exactly what he was looking at. Tasha’s body was covered in small holes, and from each hole thick coagulated blood dripped out. The tree itself had a multitude of roots and tendrils inside the cavity, some of which looked like it had been torn away recently. The recent coagulation, the thick blood, and the freshly torn roots told Kalvin something important. This had happened recently.

Stepping back, he scanned the area and immediately found what he was looking for in the soft earth of the swamp, a set of footprints, smaller and lighter than his own, that led away from the tree and further into the swamp. After a moment of consideration, Kalvin followed the footprints, hoping that they were Abigail’s and not someone else’s, or worse, something else’s.

It wasn’t long until the trail led him to another mangrove. The footprints wove through the large twisted roots and straight up to the trunk of the tree where yet another horrifying sight awaited him. A young man with brown hair, perhaps only twenty years old, was trapped inside the hollow cavity of the mangrove. Several differences between the last scene and this one stood out to Kalvin though. First the lack of blood pooling inside the trunk. Second and far more alarming were the hundreds of tiny roots that burrowed into the young man’s skin. As Kalvin watched the young man’s chest rise and fall, the surrounding roots pulsed with each breath as if in sync.

Kalvin frowned as he looked down, watching where the footprints led away from this man and further into the swamp. He didn’t have long till the next wave, but… he didn’t want to leave someone trapped inside a tree. It looked a little too familiar. How many times had he hoped someone would come by and pry out his IV’s, take out all the wires, and pull all the needles free of his body so he could escape that damn hospital or at least have a moment free from their incessant machines.

With that thought fueling his actions, Kalvin sent out a pulse of energy, letting it coalesce in his palm and quickly condense into a simple knife. He hacked into the roots, chopping through them and freeing the young man from his bounds. The body toppled forward as the roots holding it upright fell away. Almost immediately blood spurted everywhere. Flowing out of the chopped roots and, worse, from where they had been attached to the young man’s skin. 

Kalvin scrambled forward, leaning into the tree in order to clap his hands over several of the small holes and staunch the bleeding. It wasn’t enough. The blood slipped through his fingers, the hundreds of tiny little holes each continued to pump out, bright red blood splattering it everywhere. Only a few seconds passed like that, with Kalvin struggling to find any way to stop the bleeding, yet nothing he attempted helped. Soon thin gray wisps of Necrotic Energy drifted out of the hollow tree, signifying the end of the young man’s life.

Kalvin stepped away from the corpse, a frown forming on his face as compared the current scene to the previous tree. Is this what happened to Tasha? Abigail tried to save her, and she died in the process? Why were these people inside of trees? Kalvin’s thoughts swirled as he wiped the blood from his hands and stared at the deceased man. Why can’t I remember his name? Immediately, pain greeted that line of thought, causing Kalvin to stumble back and clutch at his head, smearing the mess across his temples as he tried to ease one of the worst migraines of all time.

As he stood there, clutching at his skull, Kalvin forced himself to breathe. In and out, in and out. He repeated the process over and over, slowly suppressing the pain just like he’d done to the aches and fatigue that had accompanied his body before unlocking his Climber powers. When he was done, he stood and wiped some of the blood off on the nearby tree roots, before giving a slight nod to the young man in the tree trunk.

“I’ll see you in the next life,” Kalvin said softly before closing the man’s eyes and trudging away from the mangrove tree.

He followed the footprints once more, finding them easier to follow now as they went in a straight line towards the center of the swamp. Whoever the prints belonged to was no longer interested in detouring to the mangroves with bodies inside them, or exploring the swamp. Kalvin was happy to follow the tracks, doing his best to ignore the bits of flesh or the occasional scrap of clothing he spotted amidst the trees.

Just as he felt like he was making some progress, the tracks ended as the soft, squelching bog ran into the edge of a massive stone platform. At the center of which sat a massive twisted tree, its gnarled roots at points going higher than Kalvin’s head, the crown of the tree was far out of view hidden by the fog of the Tower, yet Kalvin could still make out the lower branches and their crimson leaves. The scent of rot and blood hung thick in the air as Kalvin advanced, hoping that he’d spot Abigail soon and keenly aware that he needed to turn back in order to reach the graveyard before the next monster wave did.

Kalvin stood on the edge of the stone platform gazing at the large roots sprawling out from the tree. Their towering height and twisted forms made the area before him into a natural maze. Unwilling to waste more time or wander around in a clearly dangerous area while waiting for something to jump out at him, Kalvin sent a pulse of death energy down to his arms, when the dark mist emerged from his fingertips, he quickly condensed the energy into small, sharp claws over each of his fingers. Armed with his new weapon, he slammed the sharp claws into the closest wall of the maze and then slowly climbed the wall.

As he reached the top of the root and stood, Kalvin finally spotted Abigail. She hung limply in the grasp of a bloodied behemoth, similar in size to the hulking monstrosities of flesh and muscle that had besieged the graveyard recently. Kalvin swallowed hard and dashed towards the monster, doing his best to keep his balance on the root while scrutinizing the monster who was carrying Abigail away from him.

Kalvin realized as he closed the gap that only its size and rough shape were similar to the past monsters, as this creature’s body was covered in a thick, bark exoskeleton that hid any sign of flesh or muscle. Between the cracks in the plates, thin, crimson leaves poked out, nearly creating the illusion of a walking bloodied tree. Kalvin’s mind raced with combat scenarios, which weapons to create, how to ensure Abigail’s safety, and how to defeat the thing as quickly as possible. He’d just let his chain whip emerge from each hand when the dynamics of the fight changed, as two more giant figures emerged from the mist on either side of the creature.

He didn’t slow at the sight of the new arrivals, letting the edge of the chains sharpen into sickles, which he prepared to swing at the creature carrying Abigail. The bark-clad monster had other ideas, as it knelt down near a mangrove on the edge of the platform and slowly lowered Abigail towards the empty cavity at the center of the tree. Kalvin’s eyes widened at the sight of what it was trying to do. His chains swept out solely controlled by his will while his body stayed focused on closing the gap. He brought the sickle blades down on the creature’s arm, each of them slicing into the bark with a heavy ‘thunk’ and stopping an inch in, rather than cutting through the arm like he’d hoped. 

Again and again he brought the blades up and hammered them down on the creature’s arm and wrist, draining more and more power from his reserves to strengthen his blows. Yet it was all for naught. As the over-sized monster pushed Abigail into the tree, thin roots erupted from the mangrove, piercing into Abigail’s skin in hundreds of places. Kalvin watched the process in horror, each root swelling as they filled with Abigail’s blood, the roots of the tree growing and the branches sprouting small crimson leaves. 

Kalvin fought his way forward, summoning another set of chains that he used like massive scythes, each blade hammering into the monster between him and Abigail. His energy reserves drained faster and faster with each blow, yet as he watched Abigail’s face contort and twitch in agony, he abandoned restraint and let the chains split and reform, nearly a dozen of them now wrapping around the monster and cutting at its hard exoskeleton. He knew it was too late though. The damned, bloody tree already had Abigail, and pulling the roots out of her would just bring her death about faster. A sense of despair crept into Kalvin as he struck at the unyielding monster while watching Abigail’s body grow paler and thinner with each second as the roots drained her. As the other monsters lurched towards him and rained down blows at him, Kalvin kept his eyes on Abigail and the tree, memorizing the location, imprinting the surroundings, reassuring himself that even if he died here, he’d remember to come back and save her.

Chapter 70

Kalvin’s eyes shot open and his body jerked up into a sitting position, his sudden movements sent dirt flying everywhere. He scrambled out of his shallow grave, still covered in dirt and wearing only a hospital gown. His mind raced as he stumbled towards the center of the graveyard. I need to get back to the swamp. I need to save Abigail and those people. His aching body caught up with him then, overwhelming the sense of urgency and the battle trance that Kalvin had kept through his death, reminding him once again of his physical limitations.

His left side drooped, and he nearly fell over, suddenly unbalanced and unused to walking without Necrotic Energy fueling him. Kalvin wobbled and staggered back and forth as he murmured, “Status.”

Once his Status screen was open, he shakily managed to tab over to the Abilities Screen and turn on Necrotic Energy Manipulation. The requirements for using his Ability, holding on to the feelings that came with death and decay, were almost second nature for him now. The power seemed to respond perfectly to him as he stretched out with his will, hungry to find and devour the fresh Necrotic Energy that always spawned in a grave besides his. Only this time, Kalvin found something different. He found not one source of fuel, but three.

Visions of Izanami consuming Leon’s soul flashed through Kalvin’s mind as he turned towards the closest. He slowly walked towards the source, at the same time as he dragged out the thin, gray mists that marked the energy as having come from a human, or at least a Climber. What greeted him was unsurprisingly a gravestone. He pulled the last trickles of power from the air around the grave as he crouched down beside the tombstone and read the name.

Tasha M. Carver

Kalvin froze as he read the name. His concentration faltered, and the energy drifted away from him as he reread the tombstone before glancing down at the body below. He leapt down into the grave, brushed away the dirt covering the corpse’s face, and once more froze. His body shivered, and a chill ran down his spine as he stared down into the same face that he’d seen in the first mangrove, the dead woman who had been trapped in a tree. He pulled himself out of the grave slowly, not bothering to drain the last few dredges of mist that floated around the corpse. Instead, he marched across the graveyard moving to the next source of energy, while dreading what he might find there, but needing to know.

The name on the tombstone wasn’t familiar to Kalvin.

James A. Hedron

He paused at the edge of the grave, peering down at the dirt covered corpse, while worrying about what it would mean if the face in the grave matched the face of the man in the tree. In the end, Kalvin decided he needed to know, so slowly he lowered himself into the grave and wiped away the dirt covering the man’s head. Staring up at him with vacant blue eyes, was the face of the young man in the tree, the man he’d tried to save by cutting away the roots attached to him. Kalvin sat back at the sight, his back thumping against the back of the shallow pit.

Slowly he reasoned out what this might mean, verbalizing his final thoughts, despite how much he hoped they were false.  

“The swamp ate something from this man. When I cut away the roots, I killed this man permanently… Abigail must have been trying to free Tasha and did the same to her. So if I try to free anyone else from the trees, they’ll just be permanently killed instead of respawning in the next life.”

Kalvin frowned as he finished speaking to himself, finding his actions and his recent words utterly insane without context. Trees feeding on human blood and people respawning weren’t exactly everyday conversation topics. He shook off those errant musings and pulled himself out of the grave, wandering instead back towards Leon’s grave in order to get dressed and refuel himself.

Once clad in a pair of boots and jeans, and with enough Necrotic Energy to suppress his physical deficiencies, Kalvin strode towards the center of the cemetery. He placed himself close enough to where the mausoleum appeared, that when the fog cleared and the doors swung open, the wind swept through his dark hair and his ears rang with the wailing that heralded ‌Izanami. His attention, however, wasn’t on the floating bride, instead he let his eyes and senses drift across the now visible graveyard, hoping that he’d spot Abigail and that his worst fear wouldn’t come true.

He waited for her to shuffle out of her grave, for a stranger to scream, or even for any sign of movement from the many graves. Nothing ever came, though. Kalvin began to slowly circle the cemetery then, peering into each of the graves and checking the name on each of the tombstones. Every grave he checked was the same. Empty. Every tombstone held an unfamiliar name that was until he reached a remote corner of the cemetery, and there it was Kalvin’s worst fear, a tombstone with his friend's name on it. 

Abigail H. Alstrom

His eyes drifted down from the headstone and into the grave. Flat undisturbed earth lay in the pit. The only marks on the ground around Kalvin were from him walking over there. Kalvin stood over the empty grave for only a few seconds, processing everything, before stomping towards the entrance of the graveyard. His lips pressed together and his jaw clenched as fury built inside of him, his mind going into overdrive as it put together a battle plan for dealing with the armored titans in the swamp. Just then, the first monster wave began and half a dozen ghouls poured out of the fog. The hungry little undead fiends charged right at him, unaware of what torment awaited them.

Chapter 71

Kalvin finished the fight by slamming a massive cleaver down on top of the final ghoul. The weight and sharpness of the blade brought it cleanly through the small monster and buried it into the ground beneath. Rather than waste time pulling it out, Kalvin let his weapon dissipate, recycling as much of the energy as possible while letting his body drink in the thick, dark mists that floated above the monster corpses.

He gazed out into the fog beyond, shooting a glare at the floating red eyes as if daring them to enter the cemetery. Then he glanced back, letting his eyes sweep over the graveyard, making sure he had missed nothing. Finding no one besides the Guide, Kalvin last inspected himself. His left side was still terrifying to look at, his thin pale skin clinging to and displaying each curve of his bony frame. His right side wasn’t much better, as thick purple and blue lines ran beneath his skin.

Done with his self inspection, Kalvin strode into the mists, not bothering to harvest the ghouls, prioritizing his time instead of the minor benefits the cores might bring. Once he reached the crossroads and turned towards the swamp, he jogged until the first of the twisted trees came into view. Kalvin wanted to race straight to the center of the swamp, but he needed to know that freeing Abigail from the strange roots wouldn’t leave her permanently deceased like it had the others. With that in mind he detoured to the first mangrove, wading through the surrounding muck in order to peer into the empty cavity at the heart of its roots and thick branches. There was plenty of dried blood, decaying roots, and wood, but for better or worse, there was no sign of Tasha.

Kalvin crept away from the tree and jogged to the next, still conscious of how little time he had before the next wave. Peering into the trunk that had held the young man, Kalvin once again found nothing. A heavy sigh escaped from his lips as he turned away from the empty tree. Part of him had hoped he’d been wrong, and that his actions in the last life hadn’t doomed the young man, but he knew now for sure. By disconnecting the roots from James, he’d killed him. The same would be true for anyone else he tried to free from the roots, including Abigail.

He spent the next few minutes quickly searching the tree trunk, and its branches. Unlike the trees near the center of the swamp, there were no crimson leaves on its branches, but otherwise the tree appeared to be a normal tree with a hollow trunk and a penchant for drinking blood. With more questions than answers, Kalvin moved away from the tree and jogged down the path towards the next, while hoping that he would find something different at the next mangrove.

He’d only traveled thirty feet into the fog before stumbling across another tree, the roots of which had grown onto the path. Unable to see a person or a hollow space in its trunk from his position on the path, Kalvin stepped back into the soft earth of the swamp and circled around the tree. Sure enough, there was a hollow space at the center, this time with an unfamiliar woman inside. The older brown-haired woman was wearing a raincoat, her face filled with lines of worry and age. The wrinkles around her lips gave her an almost natural smile. Kalvin couldn’t help but imagine for a moment what this woman was doing when she was brought here. Coming home from work perhaps, or heading out to the store, or a million other mundane things. None of which would have prepared her for being ripped away from her life and thrust into the Tower.

Rather than immediately trying to pry her from the tree, or pull out the roots, Kalvin investigated the hollow, tracing the thin roots from the interior of the tree trunk to where they burrowed into her skin. Peering down into the tree, the woman’s lower half seemed to be suspended in the air by thick roots that wrapped around her legs and waist. Even if he cut away the thin roots, he’d have to chop through the thick roots before he could pull her free of the roots. Maybe if Abigail was here, she could use her Ability to cleanse something in the woman or in the tree, and that might work. As it stood all Kalvin could do was leave the woman trapped in the tree, withering away, or cut away the roots and let her die.

Kalvin briefly considered if it would be a mercy to pull away the roots, what it must feel like for the woman, if she was conscious like he had been so many times in the hospital’s basement, laying there hoping that someone would have mercy and pull the plug. He stepped away from the tree then, a heavy feeling settling in his stomach as he returned to the path. Kalvin turned away from the swamp, trekking back to the entrance of the graveyard, making it just in time to meet the next wave of monsters.

Chapter 72

The simple, almost routine fight let Kalvin clear his head of any dark musings the trapped Climber had brought, while the chilling Death Energy energized him and refueled him for another journey back into the swamp. The corpses of the Lesser Ravenous Ghouls were left on the ground, unharvested, as Kalvin jogged away from the cemetery. When he reached the outskirts of the swamp, Kalvin didn’t slow and kept moving past the first few trees and back to the mangrove, imprisoning the older woman. 

As he neared the large sprawling roots of the tree trunk, a thin mist pulsed out of his left arm. He wrapped the energy around his hand and shaped it into the same shovel he’d used to help bury Father Malkovich’s village. He knelt down at the base of the tree and, with his newly formed tool, set to ‌digging beneath the mangrove. The soft earth here was easier to slice through, but heavier, and seemed to suck in his shovel each time he dug into the ground. Kalvin spent the better part of the next ten minutes digging and just as he was about to give up on the idea of finding anything, a dull 'thunk' sounded out from the hole as his shovel struck something solid.

It wasn’t immediately obvious what Kalvin’s shovel had struck as the roots and dirt obscured the object from sight, so he spent the next minute clawing away at the soft earth and clay. When enough of the earth had been shifted away, a large cylindrical ceramic pipe was revealed. Surprise flitted across Kalvin’s face as he examined the earthenware. It felt… out of place in the otherwise natural swamp. Brushing away more dirt and following the bend of the pipe up Kalvin found it attached to the base of the tree. His surprised expression soon turned to one of disgust as he realized what was most likely to be contained inside the pipe.

He needed to know for sure though, so Kalvin let his shovel collapse, morphing the metal into a thin steel needle, which he used to poke a small hole into the pipe. A thick, viscous liquid sprayed out of the pipe and Kalvin quickly leapt out of the hole to avoid getting the strange substance on his newly pilfered clothes. The liquid slowly filled the hole, coming up to the hole in the pipe and stopping, giving Kalvin the perfect chance to examine it. Somehow the contents of the pipe were worse than what Kalvin had feared. A strange mixture of sap, oil, and blood, from which the sickly scent of rot emanated. It was the same smell that had greeted Kalvin the first time he’d stepped into the swamp, only ten tenfold in potency.

With fingers pinching his nostrils closed, Kalvin stepped away from the hole and circled around the tree to check in on the older woman. Sadly, no miracle had happened. The woman still hung inside the tree, unconscious. Kalvin stood just outside the hollow watching the older woman, making sure that what he’d done to the pipe below had not affected her‌.

Finally he could wait no longer. Kalvin turned away from the tree and the woman, jogging back to the path and trekking out of the swamp as fast as he could. He’d just exited the swamp when a distant shrieking noise rang out through the fog. Kalvin groaned and abandoned his steady jog for an all-out sprint. He raced back towards the cemetery, reaching the entrance just in time to see the small wave of ghouls charging towards Izanami. 

For a fraction of a second, he was half-tempted to let the ghouls attack Izanami and move onto the next life, just to witness the process with his own two eyes, but no. He’d come too far in this life, made too much progress, and the risk of losing another memory was far too high. With that in mind and no time to close the gap between himself and the ghouls, Kalvin attempted something he’d only done once before, conjuring an item outside of his body. The corpses of dead half-drained ghouls filled the entrance and wisps of Necrotic Energy wafted out of the fresh graves he’d refused to pull from earlier, the perfect fuel sources for his desperate gamble.

He let his senses expand as he called out to the dark energy swirling throughout the graveyard. From either side of the mausoleum he pulled on the energy, directing it to stretch out across the graveyard. The two sources he pulled on met in the middle only a few feet in front of Izanami. Right as they connected, he forced them to manifest, commanding the energy to twist into a solid object right before the goblins made contact with the mist. The thin strands of mist were formed into a slender strand of sharp metal wire that Kalvin could see gleaming in the distance. The first goblin didn’t slow upon contacting the wire, and for a second as the other goblins streamed through his creation, Kalvin thought his experiment had failed and he was going to be forced to reset after all.

It wasn’t until the goblins tried to leap at Izanami that the results of his creation proved successful. The hungry howls of the goblins sounded out and Kalvin watched as with each war cry and attempted leap, the bodies of his undead enemies came apart. Their upper half slid off their waist and plummeted to the ground. Dark energy pulsed out of their corpses even as the last of their shrieks faded to nothing.

Kalvin slowed to a stop a few feet from the massacre, his concentration faltering as a sudden wave of pressure washed over him. The manifested wire unraveled back into mists and at the same moment the power keeping him upright and suppressing his condition abandoned him. He plummeted towards the ground, the sudden weight and agony of his body bringing him down, as that same pressure smothered his mind and dragged him closer to oblivion. All he could do was mutter a single word before darkness claimed him.

“Fuck.”

Chapter 73

Kalvin slammed his fist into the ground and forced himself onto wobbly legs. The world around him spun as he took everything in, the cleanly cut bodies of monsters, the calm floating bride, and the ever stoic graveyard. He wasn't sure how long he'd been out for, but he hadn't been reset yet. He hadn't lost his progress, or memories. He turned away from the corpses and mausoleum, trudging back towards the entrance, intent on returning to the swamp and continuing to unearth its mysteries when a thought struck him. How long was I out for?

Kalvin stood just inside the cemetery, processing the rather obvious line of thought while looking out at the mists behind. 

“Well, I don't see any monsters… Maybe I could just go for a little while and come back? No… Shit!” Having caught himself talking to no one, yet again, Kalvin immediately fell silent and let out a single curse.

I must really be going mental out here by myself, huh? Kalvin walked towards the nearest corpse and did the only thing he could while waiting for the next wave. Harvest monster cores and store as much Necrotic Energy as possible. 

Kalvin started at the oldest bodies near the entrance, using only a single claw to precisely cut open the monster’s chests and extract their cores. It took less than a minute for him to harvest all six monsters and move onto the next group. Kalvin soon settled into a rhythm as he went from corpse to corpse, draining their energy and plucking out their cores in only a few seconds. The entire process only took another three minutes, and that was mostly due to him having to move around after each harvest.

When all was said and done, Kalvin found himself re-energized and holding just over twenty monster cores. After wiping them clean, he swallowed them down one at a time. When he was finished, a series of silver pop-up screens blotted out his vision.

Congratulations on Leveling up!

Please select your upgrade:

Health

Mana

Active

Passive

Random

Kalvin skipped Health and Mana without a second thought, letting his finger drift down towards Active, but pausing just before pressing the button. Abigail in two different lives now had pushed the need to select the Random upgrade every time. Yet… He needed an Ability that would let him free people from the tree, or something that could unlock more of his memories. There was no guarantee something like that would be in his pre-determined pool of Abilities though, as the System only seemed to favor him with Abilities more suited to terrorizing people than helping anyone.

Rather than decide immediately on what to select, and with the next monster wave yet to appear, Kalvin turned to the one person who might have answers, Izanami. Upon stepping within five feet of the floating bride, Izanami’s veiled, covered face turned towards him and her familiar, melancholic voice drifted out from behind her veil.

“Greetings. I am known as Izanami. Please let me be the first to welcome you into the Tower of Sheol, and congratulate you on becoming a Climber.”

Kalvin acknowledged her polite greeting with a bow of his head. “Would it be alright if I asked you some questions?”

“Please do, Climber. It’s my job as your Guide to answer any questions related to the Tower.”

“Great. First question, if my starting Ability is Necrotic Energy Manipulation, and all the other Abilities I’ve received are equally creepy, what are the chances of me getting an Ability that heals people?” Kalvin asked while clenching his fist. His fingers dug into his palm as he worried he might not want to hear the answer.

“Assuming you are asking about the Leveling rewards Climbers receive, yes and no. A healing Ability while your first gifted Climber Ability is related to Necrotic Energy, would make a typical healing Ability almost impossible to receive from the System. However, you are likely to find Abilities that could heal yourself, at the cost of damaging other people.”

Kalvin frowned as he listened to Izanami’s answer. There was something strange about what she’d just said… 

“Izanami, the way you phrased that, sounds like there are ways to gain an Ability other than Leveling.”

“How observant of you, Climber Kalvin. Yes, there are ways to obtain Abilities outside of Leveling up. However, as your Guide, I would not recommend wasting your time worrying about such things.”

Kalvin’s jaw worked incredulously at the revelation that you could gain Abilities outside of just Leveling up, and a million questions sprang to his lips, despite Izanami’s warning.

“How!? How do I get Abilities other than from Leveling up?” 

“I’m sorry Climber Kalvin, I can not provide you with that information. You’ll need to find out for yourself,” Izanami said, sounding strangely almost apologetic.

Kalvin opened his mouth to ask why, to complain, to find some way around the strange restriction on what she could or couldn’t tell him, but as he heard the shrieks of the next monster wave approaching, he let his lips close and turned away from the Guide. He stalked back towards the entrance to meet the wave, upset, but unwilling to whine or complain about his situation. Instead he resolutely pressed the Random Upgrade button each time it appeared, pausing only to read and understand each new Upgrade.

+3 Mana

+2 Health

The first Random Upgrade was a little disappointing in that he didn’t get a new Ability, but Kalvin always needed more Mana, and he’d gained vastly more Mana than if he’d just selected Mana as his upgrade.

Dreadspark (Common): Creates a spark of Dreadflame at the User’s fingertip.

Cost: 1 Mana

Kalvin read the Ability‌ three times, and with each time, his frown deepened. The Ability had the sparest description he’d ever seen, did not explain what Dreadflame did, and cost a single Mana, indicating it would most likely be on the low power end of Abilities. There was no way to change the Ability he’d receive though, so Kalvin merely let out a deep sigh and moved onto the next Upgrade.

Plunge into Darkness (Rare): Turns the world around the User into pitch-black Magical Darkness.

Cost: Varies

+2 Mana

Kalvin smiled upon seeing the last upgrade screen. Abigail had been 100% right. A Rare Ability AND some bonus Mana was better than expected. Even if he’d gotten one random he didn’t want, he’d more than made up for it in just the three upgrades. He’d just dismissed the notifications and tabbed over to his Ability Screen, ready to test out his new powers when he was reminded of why he was still here, leveling up instead of finding a way out or saving the people in the swamp. The shrieks and howls that rang out of the fog beyond the graveyard brought any excitement he’d felt at the sight of new things to a screeching halt and a grim reminder that he could lose everything in a single moment. 

Kalvin dismissed his Ability Screen and strode through the graveyard, once more placing himself at the entrance to meet the oncoming wave. His expression shifted to a cold, battle-hardened indifference as he let long black chains spiral out of his palms and clank onto the ground. This wouldn’t be a fight for experimenting, or letting out his anger, or even practicing his new Ability. Right at this moment Kalvin was more motivated than ever to get back to the Swamp and save those people trapped in the trees, to save Abigail. So when the first ghoul shambled out of the mists, he let both chains swing, each of them scything through the mist and through the oncoming monster wave, like a farmer reaping his field.

Chapter 74

The bodies had barely hit the floor when he took off running back towards the swamp and its trapped Climbers. Kalvin drank in the energy he’d been able to gather from the battle, using it to fuel his body and sprint faster down the path. He reached the mangrove containing the older woman in record time, spotting the large hole amidst its roots, full of the toxic sludge that had poured out of the pipe beneath it. Upon nearing the tree, Kalvin felt something that hadn’t been there before. It was so potent that Kalvin didn’t need to reach out with his senses to identify it immediately. A thick dark mist spilled out of the mangrove, signaling the fate of the occupant he’d been trying to save so desperately.

He circled the trunk to observe the woman with his own two eyes, and almost wished he hadn’t. Rather than the pool of blood that had greeted him upon the demise of the other mangrove victims, not a speck of blood or moisture was visible. Only a withered, drained husk of a human remained behind. It didn’t take long for Kalvin to sort out the most likely cause of the woman’s passing, as he stomped back around the tree to observe the flooded roots and overfilled hole he’d dug. His meddling with the pipe had taken this woman’s life… The leak in the pipe had destabilized whatever balance there had been, causing the tree’s roots to drink more and more from the woman to compensate for the leak, until it ultimately killed her.

With his inspection done, Kalvin closed his eyes and bowed his head before the woman, paying his respects to her while clinging to a small shred of hope. This time would be different. He wouldn’t feel a fourth source of Necrotic Energy in his next life, and instead he’d encounter this older woman alive and well. Kalvin turned away from the tree trunk after that, moving back to where he’d seen the pipe vanish into the distance. With the damage already done, he no longer had reservations about carrying out his next plan. It was time to find out where the pipe went.

The next hour settled into a strange rhythm, Kalvin would dig a hole in the swamp, down to where the pipe was, confirm he was still tracking it, then walk around twenty feet and repeat the process. Every few holes he’d dart away from the swamp and sprint back to the cemetery to fend off the next monster wave, before continuing to dig. Soon a twisted line of dots could be seen in the swamp. Each dot perfectly corresponded to where the pipe started, and the end Kalvin had found.

The thick ceramic pipe didn't feed into some well, or some lake of blood. It ended at another tree. Unfortunately though, it was the one tree Kalvin had not wanted to approach. It was the massive tree at the center of the swamp with its crimson leaves. He’d found the end of the pipe embedded into one of the gnarled massive roots that hung off the stone dais, making it impossible to track unless he could somehow chop through the massive root head high roots. Still, that wasn’t enough to deter Kalvin. The pipes and the blood stolen from the Climbers had to serve some kind of purpose, and if he could find that purpose, he’d be able to find out how to disconnect the trapped Climbers.

With that in mind, Kalvin circled around the stone dais, keeping his body low. He used the root walls to avoid being sighted by the massive bark titans that occasionally patrolled the dais. Each time he found a large root, trailing off the stone dais and burrowing into the ground, he would pause and dig down, hoping to uncover something new. He did this process a handful of times, finding a ceramic pipe inserted into each of the roots. The pipes were always slightly warm to the touch and an unfortunate reminder of their contents.

The only things that caused Kalvin difficulty as he stalked around the dais and searched for answers were the ever present sickly sweet smell of rot, and the constant need to run back to the cemetery to defend Izanami. The further into the swamp he progressed the longer it took him to get back to the cemetery and run back. Now at the center of the swamp, Kalvin spent half of his free time running back and forth between the two locations, and as he circled the massive stone dais, the distance he needed to traverse only grew.

It was at the end of a trip in the swamp, where he’d nearly completed a half circle of the dais and just finished uncovering yet another pipe, when it happened. Kalvin turned to leave, to sprint back towards the cemetery when the loud scream shook his surroundings. Even the towering roots seemed to tremble from the ear-splitting noise. Kalvin’s ears rang even after covering them with his hands. His eyes quickly searched for the source of the bloodcurdling noise and found it almost immediately. A mouth had appeared on the giant tree at the center of the swamp. For the tree with its leaves and branches that blotted out the sky, and stretched into the fog beyond, the lip-less opening on its trunk was large enough to swallow a house whole. 

The Tower was never content with things just being kind of awful. It seemed like every new thing Kalvin uncovered had to be immediately followed up with something much worse, and in this regard, the terrifying tree didn’t disappoint. A massive orb of the toxic sludge that Kalvin had found in the pipes slowly oozed out of the creature's mouth. Once fully free of the tree, it plummeted to the ground, impacting it with a heavy boom tearing through roots and landing on the impenetrable stone dais beneath.

Kalvin quickly climbed up the nearest root, his curiosity overwhelming the need to stay hidden. In the distance, the thick, viscous sludge slowly peeled away from the orb, revealing a sizeable chunk of compressed flesh. Kalvin’s stomach almost leapt out of his body upon seeing the monstrosity at the center of the orb. If he’d eaten anything this life, or if the hospital had fed him more than liquids, he knew without certainty he’d be vomiting it up. Even as his chest heaved, and his insides convulsed with disgust, he examined the creature as it moved.

The worst part of the thing was its lack of skin, quickly followed by its lack of a skeletal system. Every part of the monster was coated in a thick, sap-like mucus that seemed to hold together the intestines, muscles, and organs that made up its body. Just like a baby being born, it didn’t immediately stand, or do anything complex. It’s only actions were to crawl to the nearest root of the tree and claw away at the bark covering it. Soon it hit something inside the massive root, and like a babe drinking milk from its mother, it began to bathe in the vile blood sludge the tree roots were filled with, while the bark it tore away began to slowly coat the massive thing's body.

Heavy, thudding footfalls came from behind Kalvin then, and he turned to see an approaching Bark Titan, one that had clearly spotted him. His gaze twisted away from the oncoming impervious monster and back to the large lump of flesh and organs that was gnawing at the roots of the tree as bark covered its body. It clicked in his head then. He’d just witnessed the birth of a monster. The damned tree was drinking blood from Climbers and turning it into monsters.

He didn’t have time to think about what that meant for saving Abigail or the others, though, because a massive fist slammed down atop the root, nearly cleaving it in two. Kalvin had barely slid down the root wall and dived away from the blow, yet still the resulting shockwave and debris tore into his back. It turns out the scary monster won’t just let you sit around and daydream, Kalvin thought bitterly as he picked himself up and ran away from the lumbering giant behind him.

Rather than turn and test his weapons on the fully armored Titan swinging at him, or try and sprint back towards the cemetery to reach it in time for the next wave, Kalvin made the best of this opportunity and sprinted towards the newly made monster whose body was only half covered in armor.

Chapter 75

Kalvin jumped to the left, narrowly avoiding another blow from the Bark Titan pursuing him as he sprinted through the labyrinthine roots. Each step he took, each wall he rounded, or the gap he closed between him and his target, was foiled by the Bark Titan’s effortless movements. While he darted around like a rat in a maze searching for cheese, the monster merely stepped over walls and crashed through obstacles, occasionally plunging its armored hand down as if to pluck him out of the maze.

Seeing no other option, and knowing his remaining time was running low, Kalvin unleashed his deathly energy, letting his dual chains free. Each of them exploded out of his palm, their edges sharpening and digging into the nearby walls. When the next grasping hand of the monster came down, Kalvin flexed his body and leapt, pouring all his power into one chain and commanding it to PULL. His body was flung up into the air with such force that the thin skin covering his face and left side pressed against his skeleton, creating an unpleasant sensation and a haunting image for any who might look on. At the apex of the movement, Kalvin sighted the newly born monster, and twisted his chains, lining up his body with the distant creature, before relaxing his concentration on the sharp ends of the chains.

Immediately, the blades that held him attached to the roots, that had been acting as his anchor to the ground, dissolved into nothing, and as a result, Kalvin’s body was fired like a stone from a slingshot. As the wind pulled at his skin and hair, Kalvin wore a grim smile, his arms coming up to cover his head and face as he landed with a thump, his body plunging directly into the side of the monstrous blob of flesh.

The resulting explosion of flesh and wood sent bits of disgusting debris flying, splattering mucus, muscle, and bark across the towering tree and the dais. When the destruction settled enough, Kalvin slowly extracted himself from the mess of organs and ruined flesh. His entire body ached from the process of being made into a slingshot projectile, but the slowly disintegrating black armor that he’d wrapped around his body at the last possible moment had saved him from waking up with a mouthful of dirt.

As his armor faded from existence, Kalvin took in his surroundings while chunks of the monster rained down onto him. He’d torn a massive hole in the side of the monster at the cost of nearly dying. His energy reserves were so low that he could barely stand up straight, and two more Bark Titans were rapidly approaching behind the original that had spotted him. Kalvin stretched out his senses, greedily devouring the Necrotic Energy from the corpse of the monster he’d just slain only to freeze. His eyes snapped open, and he dove forward. It was too late though, as the flesh of the creature he’d blown apart contracted around him and slammed against him, holding him in place.

“What fucking bullshit is this?” Kalvin cursed as he struggled to free himself from the writhing muscles that had pinned his arms to his sides. His head twisted from side to side, trying to find a weakness, something to exploit, a core to attack, or a source of energy to empower him. What he saw from his new vantage, as the creature slowly swallowed him into its body, was that despite his brutal attack, and blowing away nearly 50% of its body, the newborn titan had been so unbothered by him that it hadn’t stopped gnawing at the roots of the crimson leaf tree.

Kalvin pulled on his reserves, forcing the last dredges of energy out through the bones of his left arm and hand. He commanded the weak energy into thin blades that curved around his fingers and up his arm. The sharp blades sliced away at the creature and his own flesh equally as he struggled desperately to free himself. He’d just pulled an arm free of the monster, when the bark plating encroached over its flesh. He quickly pulled his right side free, his jerky, ragged swipes tearing through his bindings and striking his flesh beneath. It took all of his being to suppress the pain, to force down the building ache, and the slow burn that he felt in his chest, but finally he was free.

He extracted his legs from the monster and rolled out onto the ground just as the bark shell closed over the place he’d been trapped. Slowly, Kalvin forced himself to stand. He watched the trio of Bark Titans approach while his mind struggled to count the time that had passed. He shivered as he looked at the closest Bark Titan and beyond it, the many mangroves that dotted the swamp. Prisons for people like him. He didn’t know if the monster wave had even spawned yet, or if he’d missed some hidden weakness in the brief fight with the Titans, but Kalvin knew one thing for certain, he couldn’t let them imprison him in a tree. He would not be locked away again. He would not let himself become someone else’s toy. NEVER AGAIN!

So Kalvin carefully formed the last of his energy into a thin spike in his right hand, then he slowly turned towards the mouth of the tree, the source of the rot and the mother of the monsters. With the heavy footsteps of the Bark Titans around him, and constant gnawing of the newly minted monster beside him, Kalvin’s voice could barely be heard as he drove the spike towards his own heart.

“I’ll be back.”

Chapter 76

The graveyard was still and silent, despite the trial having begun. Fresh adventurers were supposed to be climbing out of their graves to meet the challenge of a new place, yet as the mists slowly cleared inside the cemetery, they revealed only a lonely place, devoid of life. Even when the heavy stone doors of the mausoleum opened and a beautiful bride, clad in a white bridal dress and wearing a lacy veil, floated out into the center of the graveyard, the place remained just as empty. When the howls that had heralded the Guide’s arrival faded, the only sound that came out of that solitary place was a soft sob.

It wasn’t until much later, when shrieks could be heard at the open gates that movement appeared inside the cemetery, in a distant corner, a lone figure slowly clawed its way out of a grave and shambled towards the invading ravenous monsters who broke the peaceful atmosphere within the cemetery. Chains fell from the figure’s hospital gown, dragging on the ground behind him as he approached the undead monsters. The man finally came to a halt just before the mausoleum. His entire body was motionless with the natural motions of his chest rising and falling absent. Even the wind which should have been whipping at his thin gown seemed to avoid the figure. By contrast, the ghouls who leapt about and screeched were filled with energy, excitement, and hunger.

When the two opposite forces met, the ghouls shrieked louder than ever and dove upon the man. Their instincts screamed at them that something was wrong, but the insatiable hunger overwhelmed everything else in the long dead creatures’ minds. If there had been any fresh Climbers, any of the intended challengers of the Tower here, all they would have seen in the next moment would have been a black line briefly painted across the horizon. When the shrieking sounds faded, the monster’s corpses hit the ground in a series of soft thumps followed by a light clinking as the chains once again settled onto the ground at the solitary figure’s feet.

Kalvin stood there just in front of the mausoleum, staring out into the mists beyond and waiting for hours. With each new monster wave that came, he calmly absorbed the energy released with their deaths, and then let the bodies tumble to the ground. His entire mind for once was focused on the energy building inside of him. No more planning, no plotting, or testing. Any stray thought that emerged he instantly suppressed, because he knew what would happen once he contemplated what had just happened. What he’d just done. Kalvin stood and waited. Ghouls died by the dozens, and his expression didn’t falter. Diegheists began to appear and fall just as quickly, yet he showed no change. Even when a cunning bone sabertooth announced itself with a roar, he stood in place, his entire being focused on his power and the chains he whirled around him.

Only when a hulking behemoth of flesh appeared did he show a response. His cold eyes swept over the creature, missing a head, with its mouth and face stretched out upon its chest, grotesquely swollen muscles that lay exposed due to its lack of skin, and finally its sheer size. This was the closest thing Kalvin had seen here to the Bark Titans. The comparison caused his concentration to slip, his mind split in different directions and the chains spinning around him stopped and clattered to the ground. His right hand lifted and rubbed his chest, over the place where he’d committed an unthinkable sin.

As the monster’s lumbering footsteps shook the surrounding earth, Kalvin’s rage built. His anger was not directed at the monster before him, and not at the surrounding Tower, but at himself. He’d lasted years in that hellhole of a hospital without even considering ending it all, yet here, it felt like he’d been forced to after only a few weeks. That internal sizzling cauldron of emotion soon began to boil and bubble over due to everything he’d been put through. All the terrible suffering, the pain, the indignities, and even the violation of his own mind, losing his precious memories, pushed Kalvin past anger, and beyond rage, and into the territory of blind fury. 

A red mist swept through his mind, blotting out the world around him except for the objects of his anger, himself, and the hulking monstrosity. Kalvin accelerated, all of those complicated thoughts and emotions condensing into a white-hot fury that he funneled into the dark energy inside of him. The two sources met inside him, colliding into each other, one a fiery red the other a chilling black. Together they twisted and swirled, forming into a cruel maelstrom that fueled Kalvin’s body with more power than ever.

He leapt off the ground, hurtling towards the creature’s gaping maw, just like the hundreds of goblins that had attacked him in the past. The monster's right arm blurred then, swinging at him with such a blinding speed that it was hard to react to. So Kalvin didn’t dodge, or attempt to parry. He let a wave of bubbling black oil seep out of his body spread into the surrounding air. Upon contact with the monster’s fist, they changed, like kernels bursting open into popcorn. The oil expanded at the sudden force, slowly weakening the fist enough so that when it finally struck Kalvin, he wasn’t immediately pulverized and sent into the next life.

The blow landed on his left side, with enough force to shatter his bones, crush his ribcage and send him flying, except, rather than being knocked away as expected, something else happened. His bare right hand lashed out, dark crimson energy coating his fingertips, encasing them in a hellish black metal with a bloody sheen that sliced into his target, the monster’s tongue. He weathered the heavy blow from the monster by digging in further, sharp barbed wire erupting from his flesh as his limbs wrapped around the monster’s tongue and held on for dear life.

Even if he didn’t die instantly or go flying into the distance, Kalvin’s brain rattled around in his skull, and the only thing he could do for several long moments was cling to the monster. Finally, the behemoth of flesh and muscle decided the ant prickling its tongue was going to be its lunch. Some of the tension left Kalvin’s body as the monster took the bait, as the monster’s teeth closed around him, his focus turned inwards towards the boiling core of rage and death that was tearing apart his mind. 

As its massive, sharp teeth pierced into his skin, Kalvin exhaled and let go of his rage-fueled core, ejecting all his power and emotions from his body in that single breath. With his self-restraint gone and all thoughts of control pushed down, the energy erupted out of his body. Sharp waves of power tore out of his body, growing as they traveled and slicing through everything in his surroundings. The monster was the first to suffer. It was like a blender had suddenly turned on inside of it. Wave after wave of darkness tore through its body. 

Kalvin’s body tumbled to the ground as the hulking behemoth was shredded apart. The waves of power slammed into the earth, crashed against the iron fence, and shot off into the sky. The dark, malevolent energy that he’d released covered everything within fifty feet of Kalvin. As he lay there on the ground, powerless and weak, devoid of the power that had kept him mobile and strong for so long, Kalvin felt a sense of clarity for the first time in a long time. He’d exhaled out everything that had bothered him, and yet felt no strain on his lungs. He felt the aches and pains of his body, yet had never felt truly hungry in this place. There had been so many signs, so many warnings of what he was from the first time he awoke in this place, all the way to the last life where his mind revolted at the sight of something, yet nothing came out of his body.

With the painful revelation, Kalvin allowed himself a moment of peace. He stopped trying to chase after an escape, stopped trying to save everyone, and stopped trying to become powerful. For the next few hours, Kalvin Atrophos, the zombie, lay in the crater he’d created and stared up at the dark, cloud-covered ceiling of the Tower and did absolutely nothing.

Chapter 77

He lay there in that pit for a long time, wishing that the clouds in the sky would move, or that the sun would rise. When he’d finally had enough, Kalvin forced himself to stand, ignoring the Necrotic Energy that his overwhelming final attack had saturated the environment with. Slowly he shambled out of the crater and looked out at the mists beyond the cemetery. For once, none of the malicious red eyes were there to greet him, only the swirling heavy blanket of mist.

Turning away from the entrance, he staggered towards the Guide. Without his power, or his mental suppression to hold his body in place, each step was slow, and he needed to use his full concentration just to keep from falling over. When he finally came to a halt before the Guide he lifted his head and with a tiny glimmer of hope in his voice asked, “Was that the last of the monster waves?”

“Greetings Climber. Yes, that was the last of the monster waves designed to attack this cemetery. Congratulations on overcoming such a challenge by yourself! Allow me to be the first to welcome you to the Tower of Sheol. I am known as Izanami, and I’ve been assigned as your Guide on this floor of the Tower. Please feel free to ask me any Tower-related questions.”

Kalvin’s eyes narrowed as he took in Izanami’s words and tone. She sounded different this time, almost hopeful. Was it because I fought off the monster waves before talking to her that she’s acting differently? Kalvin’s lips pursed as he considered what to do next, before he remembered that he didn’t need to figure it out by himself.

“Lady Izanami, what would you recommend for my next course of action?”

Kalvin saw a faint motion that could have been a smile through the veil as he finished speaking.

“Since you are strong enough to defeat those monsters, I’d recommend that you stop wasting time on this floor. The best thing you could do now is find an exit and head to the next floor.”

“When you say ‘an exit’ does that mean there is more than one way out of here?” Kalvin asked, while struggling to maintain a calm exterior.

“All I can say is that in the Tower of Sheol, many of the problems you’ll face will have more than one correct answer.”

Kalvin rolled his eyes and stepped away from the Guide and her Mausoleum. Expecting her to say something plainly for once had been too much to ask, but still her answer had seemed to indicate that there was more than a single exit within this place. If he could find an exit and save everyone from the swamp, it would be easy to escape to the next level. The only problems were the Bark Titans, the Crimson-leaved tree at the center, and his own lack of power.

Content with knowing that this life wouldn’t be reset soon, and that no more monsters would emerge, Kalvin exited the graveyard, and stepped into the mists. It wasn’t long before he once again came to the crossroads. Instead of returning to the swamp, digging through the muck, and fighting the Titans, he went straight. It was a slow process, each step with his left foot brought a sharp stabbing sensation to his heart, but compared to what he’d just gone through and the agony he experienced every time he delved through his memories, the pain he felt from walking without his power was nothing.

Kalvin passed by the hollow buildings on the outskirts, making his way through into the town proper, and following the main street all the way to the front steps of the church. It was as he ascended the step to the large double door that Kalvin thought of what to do with Father Malkovich in this lifetime. The last time he’d seen him, the old priest had sat down on these steps and asked for a moment of peace, before he gave over the promised rewards. Perhaps, in this life, it wouldn’t be so bad to head downstairs with the old man, have some tea, relax and ask the old fool some questions before they set off to bury the townsfolk.

Another problem appeared then. As Kalvin’s emaciated form tugged on the door handles, the heavy doors of the church remained sealed without even so much as a groan. Kalvin let out a low groan, internally berating himself for leaving all of his energy in the graveyard. He hadn’t wanted to take all that power and emotion back inside of him yet, but with each new inconvenience he met, he regretted his decision. Even after yanking on the handles several more times, the doors to the church refused to budge, so Kalvin did the only thing he could. He loudly knocked against the doors, while hoping Father Malkovich would hear it and be curious enough to open up.

Kalvin had expected to be knocking on that door for half an hour before that deaf old man heard him and opened up. So when the heavy doors opened after just the first blow, Kalvin’s mouth opened in surprise, readying himself to greet the old priest while preparing to duck in case there were any stray fireballs this time.

No amount of preparation could have helped Kalvin with what greeted him inside the twisted stone church. Empty. That was the first thing that came to mind as he stepped across the threshold. The bodies that had filled the pews were gone. Of the senile old priest, there was no sign. Even the cobwebs and dust had been cleared away. There was only a single being inside. Just in front of the altar stood a young man with shining black hair and rosy cheeks. Even from across the church, Kalvin could tell there was something wrong with the stranger. Something different. Abnormal. Kalvin stared at the man, trying to place what was wrong with him, yet it wasn’t until he was halfway down the center aisle that he realized what it was. The eyes. He recognized those eyes. Ancient, tired, and covered in a thin glaze that hid the once-bright blue color. Father Malkovich’s eyes.

Kalvin had no more anger to give, no more rage to burn, he’d left it all behind in that crater. As he looked into that wizened gaze all he felt was sadness, for he knew despite possessing those eyes, this man was not Father Malkovich. The being in front of him, oblivious to the internal strife within Kalvin, chose this moment to speak, their booming sonorous voice once more confirming their identity as an imposter within Kalvin’s mind.

“Welcome to my church.”

Chapter 78

“Your church? Not the Church of the Third Baptist twice removed or something long and eloquent like that?” Kalvin asked skeptically, while walking closer to the young man.

“No. I prefer things that aren’t so wordy and tediously long. After all, it’s not the length of the blade that matters, it’s how you use it,” said the young man with a playful tone. His right hand lightly patted the pommel of a black and silver sword that jutted out from his belt.

Kalvin paused in his steps, his right eye twitching as he stared at the strange man saying strange things. He was half-tempted to turn around and leave, but he needed to know something first.

“Where is the old priest?” Kalvin asked calmly, despite how his right hand shook.

“The old priest? You’ll need to be more specific. There are plenty of old priests in this world,” the young man said with a mocking smile.

“Father Malkovich. The priest who takes care of this church. Where. Is. HE!?” Kalvin’s calm facade fell away as he shouted at the man before him, wishing this time, not for his power, but for the rage he’d left back in that crater, so that he could throttle this new kind of monster that had appeared and stolen Father Malkovich’s eyes.

“Calm down. You are in a church, so please be respectful and use your inside voice,” the young man said with an amused smile, while gesturing towards Kalvin. “I can tell you have questions, and I’ll be able to answer some of them, but there is something we need to do first.”

“What,” Kalvin answered coldly.

“Why introductions, of course. Tell you what, I’ll help you out and go first. Fair enough?” 

“When introductions are over, you’ll answer my questions?” Kalvin asked as he folded his arms over his chest and scowled at the young man.

“Of course. Of course, I always keep my word,” said the young man while flapping his hand at Kalvin dismissively.

“Fine.”

“Perfect.”

Contrary to Kalvin’s expectations, the young man didn’t immediately continue. He merely stood there staring at Kalvin, occasionally tilting his head from side to side as if considering something. Finally, just as Kalvin was about to say screw it and demand answers, the strange man did something different. He reached behind him and plucked a thin black book from the altar, on its cover ornate silver lettering gleamed in the dim light. Kalvin’s head tilted and his eyes traced over what he was confident was the title of the book, yet he saw it wasn’t written in a language he recognized.

Still none of that mattered, the young man still hadn’t introduced himself. Just as Kalvin opened his mouth to tell him to stop stalling, the young man with old eyes finally spoke, only it wasn’t himself he was introducing.

“Kalvin Atrophros. Born in 2020 to Mary Ilmater and Mark Atrophros. The mother passed away because of complications from childbirth. Three years later, the father committed suicide after a failed attempt at murdering his son. The paternal grandparents took in the child, and sheltered him for just over a decade before both of them passed away under suspicious circumstances.”

STOP! I DON’T WANT TO HEAR IT! Kalvin tried to speak, yet his jaw didn’t move. He wanted to rush the man and tell him to shut the fuck up, yet despite straining his muscles, his body refused to move, held in place by an invisible force that pressed down on him harder with every word.

“Custody was passed to his aunt and uncle, who were his only living relatives. Approximately one year later, at age 14, Kalvin Atrophros was found unconscious on his neighbor’s porch and immediately brought to the hospital, while there he was officially declared dead for the first time. Only to be brought back by the hard working doctors of the Great Peaks General Hospital. The record states that over the next two years, Kalvin was found dead, or unconscious at or around his aunt’s house over twenty times, and had to be repeatedly hospitalized and brought back to life.”

Kalvin’s jaw muscles clenched together and finally he forced his body to move. It was just a fraction of an inch, as he twitched his fingertips and pressed them against the invisible force that held him in place. It felt like scraping his fingers against a stone wall, yet as the man calmly continued to read aloud from the book, Kalvin scraped his fingers against the invisible wall.

“His aunt and uncle became unable to financially support young Kalvin because of the large amount of medical bills, and as such passed custody of him to the same hospital that first saved his life, Great Peaks General Hospital. Kalvin lived there for the next two years until the hospital reported his unfortunate demise in 2038. Yet somehow miraculously in 2044 he appeared inside a Tower and slew a wide variety of monsters even a seasoned Climber would struggle with, before wandering into a church and demanding the location of a man he’s never met.”

The man closed his book and looked up then, staring at Kalvin whose fingers had bled as he tried to claw away the barrier, keeping him restrained. Those faded blue eyes stared into Kalvin’s as the man laid the book back down on the altar behind him, and in that deep, annoyingly perfect voice asked, “So tell me you who has defied death so many times, who am I?”

Chapter 79

Kalvin blinked at the sudden strange question. ‘So tell me who am I?’ What kind of weird messed up introduction is this? I have to introduce you now? How the hell should I know who you are? His thoughts swirled rapidly as he felt the pressure recede from his body. He considered rushing the smug bastard in front of him, tackling him and demanding to know what was going on, but the pressure he’d been trapped inside of, with no visible use of magic, and the strangeness of the situation, combined with the twisted story the man had told about Kalvin’s history, told Kalvin that the being before him was far stronger than any monster he’d met before.

“Sorry. Perhaps you didn’t hear me, so I’ll repeat myself,” the young man paused and gave Kalvin a grim smile before speaking a quiet, chilling tone that made the hair on the back of his neck stand up. “Tell me Climber Kalvin Atrophros, who am I?”

Kalvin’s instincts screamed at him to run, that whatever kind of new monster this was, it wasn’t something he could fight. His fingertips, numb from clawing at the barrier, trembled. His knees quivered and his body shivered as he slowly forced down his panic, suppressing the instinctual fight-or-flight mode that had arisen from the man’s question. Whatever this was, it expected an answer. He couldn’t run from it and couldn’t fight it, so Kalvin did the only thing he could, closed his eyes and tried to figure out how to answer the impossible question.

He’d wandered through every inch of the graveyard and knew nearly every name on the tombstones, although not every face. Visions of each life raced through his mind as he checked the man’s face against anyone he’d seen before. Delving into his memories would bring those sharp, debilitating migraines, yet it would be a sure sign that this man was a survivor who he had forgotten. Only as he searched through his memories, nothing surfaced. No pain, no familiar face, not even a name came to his mind. 

This isn’t someone I’ve met before, Kalvin thought frantically.

“I have other places to be, so I’d appreciate it if you could give me your answer, sooner rather than later,” came the sonorous voice of the dark-haired young man with his stolen blue eyes.

Kalvin frowned and furrowed his brows as he heard the young man urge him to answer. 

Why waste all this time then? He asked an impossible question, yet still seems to expect an actual answer.

“Could you give me a hint?” Kalvin finally asked.

“I already gave you a hint. I won’t be giving you another. It’s not my fault if you weren’t listening,” the young man replied.

Kalvin had to suppress a groan as he heard the young man’s answer. Kalvin was certain then that if he still had any anger left inside his body, he’d be charging at that smug bastard in front of him and demand answers. His unnatural sense of calm had one upside though. His thoughts untainted by anger seemed to flow cleanly and smoothly. With a sigh, he brushed away his mounting frustration and tried to consider the young man’s words.

He gave me a hint, huh? We’ve only been talking for — Kalvin’s mind shook as his thoughts raced back to how the strange man had greeted him upon entering the church. His expression smoothed out as several puzzle pieces settled into place and tension left his body. He had an answer. It might not be the correct answer, but he had an answer. Still, though, there was one thing that was bothering him.

“If I introduce you incorrectly, what will happen?” Kalvin asked quietly.

The young man’s face twisted into a cruel twisted grin, the kind of smile an executioner might give to someone before chopping off their head. “I’ll kill the you before me, then I’ll fill your grave with cement so that every time you come back to life you’ll be suffocated, turning your existence into an endless cycle of death.”

Contrary to feeling threatened by the young man’s words, Kalvin let out a deep sigh of relief, as his suspicions were confirmed. Feeling relaxed, Kalvin began to once more walk down the aisle, only stopping once he reached the front row of pews. His eyes met the aged, glassy eyes of Father Malkovich and a smile spread across his face as he introduced the being before him.

“You are Kelem, the Great Guide, the God who this Church is dedicated to and who the priest I’m seeking serves.”

Upon hearing Kalvin’s answer, the young man began to softly clap, a warm smile spreading across his face as he did so.

“Well done, well done. I’m so glad I don’t have to kill you yet. It would have been terribly tedious. Now Climber Kalvin.” As Kelem spoke, he stepped away from the altar. The black and silver book once more appeared in his hand as he stepped off the stage and approached Kalvin. “You and I have unfinished business.”

Chapter 80

“Unfinished business? What unfinished business?” Kalvin replied with a frown.

“Well, you’ve completed a quest for one of my priests, yet you left before you could receive payment,” Kelem answered.

Not for the first time in their conversation, Kalvin found himself surprised, and more than a little confused. “Do you mean burying the villagers and guarding Father Malkovich while he performed their last rites?”

“See, you are smarter than you look,” said the smug deity.

“B-but that hasn’t happened yet. I haven’t met Father Malkovich or dug the grave yet. I haven’t even received the quest in this life.”

“Hah, did you think I’d let my faithful stay inside your little loop of torment, damned to repeat the fate you choose for them repeatedly until you figure a way out? No Climber Kalvin, whatever little game you have found yourself stuck in is not something I’ll have my believers take part in.”

Instead of replying, Kalvin moved to a nearby pew and took a seat. He still remembered what Kelem had said earlier, that he’d answer some of Kalvin’s questions. All he needed to do was endure and wait.

The young man merely smirked at Kalvin’s choice to sit down and remain silent. “Not bad. It’s rare to see a newly integrated mortal behaving so respectfully. However, that’s none of my concern. Let’s get this over with. As payment for your service to my clergy member, you may ask me two questions.”

Kalvin arched an eyebrow, realizing the man’s words contained more than just a slight compliment. There was some hidden meaning to each strange gesture or new term the deity before him used. His curiosity piqued, he considered asking the deity about what he meant by newly integrated, or what had caused his loop of torment, but with only two questions available, Kalvin had to choose what to ask carefully.

When Kalvin remained silent, Kelem shook his head and lifted his arm, his faded blue eyes darting down to his bare wrist. “Hurry it up. If you don’t accept your reward in a timely manner I’ll reward you at random. I’m sure you’ve always wanted to know that 2+2=4 or that the mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell, right?”

Kalvin was getting the feeling that this particular god didn't exactly like him, so with a newly imposed time limit he asked the one question he most wanted to know as he stared up at those ancient blue eyes on the face of a god. “What happened to Father Malkovich?”

Kelem didn’t immediately answer. A frown spread across his face as he stared down at Kalvin for the next few seconds, as if examining a new bug that had just crawled out from the dirt in front of him. “Are you sure that’s the question you want to ask? You only get two questions.”

“Yes,” Kalvin answered simply.

“Fine, if you want to waste one of your questions, so be it,” said Kelem with a shrug, before explaining the Father’s fate.

“Shortly after returning to the church, Priest Malkovich passed away. The fool used far too much mana for his mortal body to handle, and so his age finally caught up with him. I came down to collect him and bring him into my domain, yet to my surprise, he asked to remain in order to properly thank the Climber who helped him put his friends to rest.”

For the first time since entering the church and talking with the deity, the playful tone, the devious smirk, and the aggravated mannerisms fell away from Kelem as he continued to speak of Father Malkovich’s fate, his voice now filled with a faint melancholy. “I wasn’t going to just leave a soul to drift and degrade in this damned place, so in order to get Priest Malkovich to ascend I promised the fool that I would reward the Climber who helped him.”

“Huh, so he’s fine? Why are your eyes like that, then?” Kalvin asked in confusion.

“That’s actually two questions. Are you sure you want to use your reward on those?” Kelem said, the tone of melancholy fading as a smirk returned to his face.

“No, I don’t. I just wanted to make sure Father Malkovich was alright. If it’s okay, I’d like to ask a different question.”

“Go ahead Climber Kalvin, ask your final question.”

Kalvin briefly contemplated the other things he could ask for, a magical weapon, an overpowered Ability, secrets of the Tower, or even a way out of here were all on the list of things he’d like, but above all else, there was something else he wanted to know.

“There is a swamp to the east of here, filled with trees that have trapped the other Climbers of this Tower. The trees are slowly draining the life out of the Climbers and seem to use their blood to fuel the creation of more monsters. I’ve been trying to free the Climbers, but no matter what I do, anytime I free them from the mangrove they die. Like really die and don’t come back.” As he spoke Kalvin’s fingers dug into his palms, digging into the muscle and eliciting sharp sparks of pain that brought clarity to his mind. “So what I want to know is how do I save those people?”

“Interesting. Are you sure that’s what you want to know, Climber Kalvin? You know you could ask me for almost anything. I know quite a few secrets of the Tower,” said Kelem, amusement once again seeping into his voice.

“Yes, please tell me how to save them,” replied Kalvin calmly.

Kelem made a thoughtful noise as his eyes darted away from Kalvin to stare into the air before him, much like a Climber did when using their System Screen. Without looking at Kalvin, Kelem then spoke. “The answer is both simple and complex. First, the simple part. You have to kill each Climber you wish to set free. Take care to use only a single blow, because if the demonic trees there sense a threat to their food, they’ll consume it instantly. Second, is the complex part. If you wish for the Climbers to truly be saved, you’ll need to end the threat in the swamp. At the heart of the swamp lies a Demonic Spirit Tree. You’ll need to enter the tree and destroy its heart once all the Climbers are free. Doing so will ensure the swamp is safe in your future lives.”

Kalvin swallowed as he listened to Kelem’s explanation. When the deity reached the part about killing his fellow Climbers, his mood grew grim and dark. Killing them didn’t exactly guarantee their freedom. They could still be captured in the next life unless he dealt with the tree. Meaning that at the very least he’d have to die again, and redo everything all over once more. Neither mortal, nor immortal spoke for a long time as both wore looks of deep contemplation, until finally Kalvin stood up from the pew and bowed to the deity.

“Thank you for answering my questions and taking care of Father Malkovich,” Kalvin said to Kelem, before he turned and marched back down the aisle, intent on returning to the swamp and testing out the deity’s proposed method. He’d just reached the threshold and was about to exit when a deep voice rang out behind him.

“Climber Kalvin, before you go… Would you like to accept a quest from a god?”

Chapter 81

Kalvin looked up as he entered the shadow of the mountain. His eyes scanned it’s peak for his target as Kelem’s request echoed through his mind.

‘This village is still not at peace. They are still missing two people in order to be complete. Fetch the one who climbed the mountain, bring him to the village’s final resting place, and help me send the last two off properly.’

When he’d been here before, the monsters had torn open the side of the mountain and spilled forth in an endless wave to stop the ritual. Yet as Kalvin reached the base, all he found was a smooth slope of rock. With no trail to follow, no monsters in sight, and no power to amplify him, Kalvin trudged his way up the mountain. Halfway up the mountain, the terrain changed from shallow slopes to treacherous inclines, where Kalvin was forced to climb sheer rock walls. He found his thin skeletal fingers were useful in digging into the small crevices as his body clung to the side of the mountain and, inch by inch, he ascended. 

As he reached the top, Kalvin replayed what information he knew about this village member. Presumably it was Estavan, the Mayor of the village. Father Malkovich had mentioned how upon realizing that his precious daughter was dying, the man had set off to one of the most dangerous places known to them, the Devil’s Spire. Indeed, as Kalvin searched the mountaintop and found no sign of the man, it was clear where he’d gone. In the entire peak, there was only a single structure of a large spiral staircase that descended into darkness.

With a grim expression on his face, Kalvin stepped onto the first stair and began his descent. After a few minutes of walking, the light from the top grew dim, and Kalvin pressed his hand to the inside wall of the staircase, using it to steady himself as he continued into the darkness. It wasn’t long after the light completely faded that a new source of illumination appeared. Peering down the central shaft of the staircase, Kalvin could see a faint red glow at what he hoped was the bottom. Without the sky, and with the near pitch black environment swallowing his senses, Kalvin had no way of knowing how long the descent took. It could have been minutes, hours, or even a day.

When he finally stepped off the stairs and onto the landing at the bottom, Kalvin glanced around, trying to make sense of his new surroundings. A massive cavern, the size of three football fields, at the center of it all lay large, scarlet crystal. A harsh, red light emanated from the crystal, illuminating the walls and ceiling of the cavern and revealing the thousands of misshapen cocoons that clung to every possible surface. Kalvin’s body tensed and he ceased all movement. His gaze flitted from cocoon to cocoon, searching each of them for signs of life, for an unknown threat that would leap out and attack him. 

Time passed slowly for Kalvin as he let his gaze sweep over every inch of the illuminated cavern. Each of the cocoons he’d seen so far appeared to be empty. Whatever creatures they’d held, having long departed. At one of the cavern entrances lay a passageway filled with crushed and shredded cocoons, the obvious departure point for whatever had been hatched in here. A brief memory of the tree vomiting out a newborn Bark Titan flashed through Kalvin’s mind, and he couldn’t help to compare the two. In this case, he had a good idea of what monsters had been born here and where they’d gone.

Kalvin, reassured by the lack of movement inside the cavern, slowly approached the only remaining object of interest, the large scarlet crystal. As waves of light pulsed out of the gem, Kalvin came to a stop at the base of the crystal heart of the mountain. To his surprise, at the center of the heart, lay a mausoleum.

He slowly circled the crystal, examining it for similarities to the one he’d seen at the start of each life inside the Tower. Ornate marble walls, a beautifully engraved door, and a worn, ancient appearance certainly lent some credence to this being the sister of the tomb inside the graveyard, if not its twin. Wanting to investigate the mausoleum, and lacking any other points of interest, Kalvin reached out to the crystal. He was intent on finding a weakness to exploit, only to be surprised once again as his hand passed through the solid object, feeling only the slightest resistance.

Kalvin didn’t immediately enter. He continued to circle the crystal while letting a hand occasionally swipe through the strange substance, all the while he examined both his surroundings and the scarlet core. When he’d completed a full circuit of the crystal and was sure that he’d missed nothing obvious in the cavern, Kalvin took a deep breath and stepped forward.

Immediately his body felt a sense of pressure, like submerging oneself in water. Every motion took fractionally more energy as the surrounding liquid resisted him. Despite the feeling of being submerged, there was no stinging sensation in his eyes, nor did the strange substance seem to press at his ears or nose. Relieved that he hadn’t been suddenly drowned by the liquid, Kalvin moved quickly through the liquid to reach the front of the mausoleum. Just as he reached the entrance, a low groan rang out from the tomb, followed by a slow grinding noise. Kalvin watched as the source of the noise quickly became apparent. A heavy door slowly swung outwards and dragged against the stone floor.

Kalvin stopped to wait for the mausoleum to fully open, half-expecting to hear a booming wind or shrieking howl tear out of the stone structure. When the door ground to a halt, and no floating guide or creepy serenade echoed out of the mausoleum, Kalvin crept forward and peered inside. Kalvin wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting inside the tomb, a floating bride, or bloody groom, or maybe just some bones, but a corpse lying on top of a stone sarcophagus wasn’t on his list.

Perhaps even more interesting than the corpse laying atop the thing it should be inside of, was that the red substance the crystal heart was made of had stopped at the doorway. Kalvin took a tentative step forward, and feeling the lack of resistance on his leg, soon moved his body into the small interior of the mausoleum. He instantly regretted his decision as Kalvin quickly learned that a decomposing body in a small, confined space, smells ten times worse than anything he’d ever smelled. Kalvin brought a hand to cover his mouth and nose, helping to mask the scent, while making sure that his body wouldn’t vomit from the stench.

With a new overwhelming motivation to be done with this quest and out of this place, Kalvin moved into the chamber proper, scooped up the corpse and slung it over his shoulder. As he moved the body, Kalvin’s gaze was directed to a difference between this place and the mausoleum back in the graveyard. The stone covering of the sarcophagus had been slightly pried open. Kalvin, curious about what the dead mayor had been trying to do, leaned forward to peer inside the stone box. What greeted him wasn’t a long dead corpse. It was a smooth blood-red door laying flat at the bottom of the sarcophagus, as if the stone coffin had been made around it. Its silver handle gleamed in the darkness and Kalvin felt his breath catch in his throat. He knew what this clearly out-of-place door meant. It was an  exit, an escape, a way out of the Tower. He could open the door and leave, moving onto the next floor.

Kalvin slowly turned away from the temptation and with one arm lifted to secure the corpse on his shoulder, he exited the mausoleum. He was excited to have found a way out of this hellscape, but was determined to see his current path through to the end.

Chapter 82

The stairs, while carrying a corpse on his shoulder, had not been an option for Kalvin in his current state, so he’d opted to push through the destroyed cocoons and follow the twisted passageway into the mountain. When he’d finally emerged from a large tunnel at the base of the mountain, it had been on the wrong side. Kalvin had then circled the mountain until finally finding the mass grave.

Standing a few feet away from the grave, leaning against a shovel, was Kelem, who glanced up as Kalvin approached.

“Ah, you’re finally here. Good, let’s get started,” Kelem said as Kalvin laid the corpse on the ground.

“Uh, don’t I have to get the second body?” Kalvin asked tiredly, the fatigue from constantly straining his body wearing on his mind.

“Don’t worry about that. Your cadaver fetching days are over for now. Just have a seat and wait till I call for you, mortal,” said Kelem as he turned away from Kalvin.

Kalvin arched an eyebrow at the casual dismissal, but didn’t complain as he dropped to the ground and brought his knees to his chest. His arms and feet should have been shaking from the overexertion. His lungs should have been on fire from going nonstop. All he felt was the same aches and pains as when he’d first woken up. His introspection didn’t last long as a sudden movement from Kelem caught his attention. The death god in a young man’s body, jerkily lifted one hand into the air, palm facing down, and then without a word flipped his palm. Kalvin was about to ask what the deity was doing when a huge section of the earth before Kelem cracked open and spewed out a massive pile of dirt onto the ground beside Kelem.

“Okay, break time is over. No rest for the wicked after all,” said Kelem, as he glanced back to Kalvin.

Kalvin didn’t reply. He extended one hand, palm facing down, and then slowly flipped it up, repeating the process several times while remembering how long it had taken him to dig the previous mass grave. The entire process seemed to elicit some kind of amusement from the deity, because rather than telling Kalvin to get up and work, the strange god laughed and climbed down into the hole he’d just created. 

When Kalvin finally gave up on trying to get the dirt to move by flipping his wrist, he stood and moved to the large hole. Peering inside, he found the mayor’s body had been carefully positioned on his back, and Kelem was laying down beside the corpse. Kalvin was just about to question Kelem’s choice of bed partner, when the death deity spoke, not in the youthful, sonorous voice he’d been using, but in a ragged, raspy voice that time had clearly worn down.

“Take the shovel, and bury us. When you are finished, your reward will appear. Place a drop of your blood on it to claim it. Oh… and Climber Kalvin, do try not to get captured by the demons in the swamp.”

For Kalvin though, all of Kelem’s instructions and warnings fell on deaf ears. As Kelem spoke, his body changed, rapidly aging, growing taller, then shorter with a slight hunch, wrinkles and smiling lines soon creasing his face, his hair rapidly fading from black to an aged gray, till finally the young man’s body had completely transformed into that of Father Malkovich’s and not a single sign of the deity remained. It was only then that Kalvin processed what the deity’s parting words had been. Kalvin stood over the open grave, mimicking the deity's actions by flipping his palm up and down a few more times. When he was absolutely sure the earth wasn't going to move with a flick of his wrist, Kalvin grabbed the nearby shovel and set to work filling in the grave.

The process of filling in the grave didn’t take that much time, and was aided by the fact that this time, there wasn’t an endless horde of monsters trying to stop him. When Kalvin had deposited the last shovel of dirt onto the grave, a large black and silver tome fell from the sky and hit the ground before him with a thump. Kalvin merely glanced at the book and upon finding it to be the same book that Kelem had been reading from in the church he ignored it. Patting down the earth with the flat of his shovel, he thought about the people that he’d meet since coming into the Tower.

Abigail, Sorren, Father Malkovich, and now this strange deity, Kelem… Perhaps it was because Kalvin had spent so long isolated, trapped in that hospital, with only that old man to speak to, but he felt… connected to those people. Despite his encounters being brief, and a certain someone repeatedly calling him a zombie, Kalvin smiled as he remembered learning about monster cores together, drinking tea with the old priest while listening to his story, and even fighting off those early waves together with the other survivors. With a deep sigh, he dismissed his brief introspection and bowed to the grave out of respect. Kalvin closed his eyes, bowed his head, brought his hands together, and in a quiet, solemn voice paid his respects to the dead.

“You were both great men. Estavan was a loving father who cared for his daughter and people more than anything and acted as a spear, desperately striking out into the world to find a cure. While Father Malkovich acted as a watchful guardian and shield, protecting his people and caring for them in both life and death. I hope that what Kelem said is true, and that both of you find peace in the afterlife.”

Kalvin stayed there, unmoving, with his hands clasped, head bowed, and eyes shut for a long time, before finally turning and heading back to the graveyard, with an ordinary shovel in one hand and a large black book in the other.

Chapter 83

Just as Kalvin returned to the graveyard, he encountered a new problem. What did Kelem say I needed to do with this book? Put a drop of my blood on it? Kalvin glanced down at his left side, and frowned as it was completely skin and bones. He then turned to look at his right side and his frown deepened. He tried to figure out the best way to pierce his skin without a knife, till finally he brought his right hand to his face and bit down. It was surprisingly hard for Kalvin, as his dull teeth were greeted by cold, tough skin, and even after chomping down, it refused to budge. Feeling frustrated, he dragged his hand back and forth across his face, letting his teeth saw against his skin until it ripped apart.

Kalvin held the book just beneath the gash and waited patiently for a drop of blood to fall. And waited. And waited. And waited. Finally, when it was clear that would not work, he just rubbed a hand against the book, smearing a thick dark stain on its front cover. As Kalvin watched, his blood seeped into the cover and soon disappeared from sight. The strange symbols on the front of the book began to contort and spin until they formed into familiar letters and words.

“The Book of the Dead,” Kalvin read the title aloud with an arched eyebrow, before opening to the first page.

All things must come to an end.

When a soul is freed from its mortal coil, three things happen.

First: Those who claim dominion over that soul may claim it, and if none do, it shall be pushed back into the Great Wheel.

Second: The vessel should return to the earth as sustenance for the next cycle.

Third: Energy equal to the accumulation of the soul’s life experience is emitted into the universe.

Those who have been gifted, given, or obtained a Book of the Dead are obligated to remove such energy from the universe and wield said energy to protect the natural order of the universe.

Kalvin closed the book. “What the fuck… Did I accidentally join a cult?”

Reopening the book, Kalvin reread the first page, and frowned, glancing up to look into the graveyard where a mass of dark gray mist tinged with red floated. With an inkling of what the energy might have been talking about, he flipped to the second page and read. After a second and third reading of the page, Kalvin looked up, a wide smile now plastered across his half-decayed face.

Kalvin snapped the book shut and marched into the graveyard, standing on the precipice of the crater he’d created at the beginning of this life. His eyes gleamed with excitement, as he extended his withered left hand towards the mass of energy beneath him. Slowly he pulled on the dark gray mist, unraveling just a thread of the energy and guiding it towards his outstretched palm. Rather than let the mist with its assorted shades of black and crimson enter his body Kalvin shaped the thread of energy into a small lump of energy that floated atop his palm, before he snipped off the thread, fully separating it from the overwhelming mass of energy in the crater.

Slowly and carefully, Kalvin used his Necrotic Energy Manipulation to smooth out the mist and let it form into a perfect orb, rather than the misshaped erratic lump that had originally appeared. He held the orb there steadily while opening the book with his right hand and reading the instructions on the second page. Once finished reading, he let the book close and began to will the ball to spin. It started slowly at first, lazily turning in the air, as Kalvin tried to push with his Ability. He imagined his Ability taking the shape of an invisible pair of hands that pressed down on the ball, forcing it to keep its shape even as he spun it faster and faster.

As the ball sped up, it wobbled and threatened to become unraveled. Each time it wobbled, Kalvin pressed down with his will, increasing the pressure on the ball and stabilizing it. When the ball reached a speed that was so fast, it seemed to stand perfectly still, it finally happened. 

Just as the book had described to Kalvin, the wisps of impurities flew out of the orb. The first to be expelled was in the shape of red ribbons, the crimson energy symbolizing his overwhelming rage, the anger that had built inside of him with each death. Next was a misty, white energy which, rather than a pouring out in a continuous stream like the previous red energy, came out in short bursts, puffing into the air around him before forming into miniature clouds and floating away. 

Kalvin continued to refine the energy, only stopping when the red ribbons and white clouds no longer appeared. Satisfied that no more impurities remained, Kalvin examined the final product in his hand. It had lost over half its size, going from around a baseball down to the size of a table tennis ball. A sense of hunger surfaced deep within him as Kalvin held the gleaming black sphere in his hand. Yet instead of consuming it immediately, he glanced back down at The Book of the Dead. Only after making sure he hadn’t missed anything did Kalvin absorb the energy into his body and draw it towards his center.

Almost immediately Kalvin felt the difference. Before, when he’d commanded the energy, it had felt sluggish. The memory of fighting on the battlefield before the mountain, while being unable to refuel his reserves, still haunted him. Now the deathly energy felt clear and smooth. What he now held within him was pure. It was the energy released by one’s soul fleeing its mortal coil just like from the first page of the book. Previously, his command over the energy had been slowed by the impurities that the energy was forced to drag around. Now that the debris had been removed, it moved in tune with him, flowing in perfect harmony with his will.

Kalvin’s eyes opened, and he turned to look toward the swamp. A determined expression flashed across his face before he turned back to the graveyard and sat down to begin the slow process of refining the rest of the energy.

Chapter 84

The refining process had probably taken hours, but the constant gloom and fog that filled this floor of the Tower made it impossible to tell. Even after spending all that time on refining the energy, Kalvin did not immediately leave the graveyard. He spent more time practicing. He sat in place while guiding the now pitch black energy into the crater. Each tendril he sent out, found its way into a corpse and extracted a monster core for him.

As a small mound of red gems was created in front of him, and his control over the dark energy increased, Kalvin opened The Book of the Dead once more and flipped to the third page… Or at least he tried to. No matter how Kalvin tried to access the page, it remained sealed. Even rubbing the page against his injury and smearing more blood on the book had no effect other than to make it a little dirtier. Kalvin, unsure of what else to do, scoured through the small amount of text contained on the first two pages, searching for a clue.

When he was sure he’d learned all he could from the book, he set the book down atop a nearby tombstone. After all, since rescuing everyone from the trees would require him to die at least once, in order to respawn everyone, he wouldn’t be able to keep it. With a deep sigh, he turned away from The Book of the Dead and returned to the entrance, in order to collect and consume the cores he’d stashed there. Blue screen after blue screen popped up in front of his face, each of them notifying him of a level up. Only once Kalvin had devoured all the cores before him though, did he stop to consider the topmost screen.

Congratulations on Leveling up!

Please select your upgrade:

Health

Mana

Active

Passive

Random

It was the same pop-up notification he'd seen a hundred times before, yet never had Kalvin seen the notifications stacked atop each other so densely. Instead of immediately selecting an option, Kalvin, curious as to how many levels he'd just gained, counted the layers. Seventeen layers in total, huh? Alright, that should be enough.

“Sorry about this Abigail,” Kalvin said softly before pressing the Active upgrade button.

Boneshaping (Unique): Use Mana to alter the size, density, and shape of bones.

Cost: Varies

Kalvin read the Ability despite being incredibly familiar with it. Even though it was ranked Unique and should have had a low chance of appearing, this Ability had haunted him throughout his many lives. Still, Boneshaping wasn’t what he needed at this moment, so Kalvin once more pressed the Active upgrade button.

Gray Fang (Rare): Summons the jaws of Cerberus to bite down, dealing Powerful Piercing and Necrotic damage.

Cost: 10 Mana

Kalvin smiled as he read the Ability. It was one he’d never seen before, yet it was precisely what he’d been hoping for. Its cost was great, but with fifteen more pages of upgrades to go through he knew that he’d be able to cast it. Plus, it was the first time he’d seen the System ever designate something as Powerful. Feeling reassured about his plan because of the Unique Ability’s appearance, Kalvin carried out the final part and pressed Mana for every upgrade screen that appeared. When all the upgrades had been settled, Kalvin read over his Status Screen, followed by his Ability Screen. A satisfied smile crept across his face as he did so.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Apprentice of the Damned

Level 18: 32%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 33/33 (43)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

————————————————

Abilities:

Necrotic Energy Manipulation

Bone Shaping

Gray Fang

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

Upon reading through the two screens, Kalvin reached up to dismiss the screens, only to pause and instead press down on the Achievements tab. And was once more greeted to an empty screen. Nothing he’d done since becoming a Climber had been considered an Achievement by the System’s standards. So with little hope, Kalvin pressed on the only tab he hadn’t checked, Titles, and to his surprise, found something had changed.

Titles:

Apprentice of the Damned (Unique): One of the rare few granted an opportunity to learn about Death from a Greater Being.

Embraced by Death (Divine): Granted to those who have completed a quest from a Deity of the Death Domain.

Is this supposed to be an extra reward? Kalvin wondered as he stared at the newly appeared title. It certainly sounded ominous. Curious to see if he could extract more information from the screen, Kalvin tapped his finger against Embraced by Death and was immediately rewarded with a pop-up notification.

Would you like to change your Active Title?

From > Apprentice of the Damned

To > Embraced by Death

Yes/No

The decision only required a moment of thought for Kalvin. The Embraced by Death title was something he earned after all, while the other was something that had appeared with little explanation. He quickly tapped Yes on the Screen and was surprised to find another pop-up had replaced it.

Embraced by Death equipped

+10 Maximum Mana

+Mark of the Divine

Immediately, Kalvin tried to tap on the screen to get more information, yet the pop-up faded to nothing upon contact with his finger. Tabbing through the screens showed that his Title was now Embraced by Death and his maximum mana had shot up to 43, with 53 now grayed out beside it, but nothing else seemed to have changed. The ‘Mark of the Divine’ was suspiciously absent from any of his screens. Even after equipping Apprentice of the Damned and re-equipping Embraced by Death, the only screen he could see Mark of the Divine on was the brief pop-up notifying him of his Active Title.

After some consideration, Kalvin kept Embraced by Death on. Despite the strange addition, the additional mana was too important to be thrown aside. With that decided, Kalvin surveyed the graveyard for a last time, before setting off to the swamp to free the other survivors by murdering them in this life.

Chapter 85

Kalvin had spent the walk, testing his new Ability, Gray Fang and slowly experimenting with Boneshaping. Both were mana intensive and had vastly different functions. Gray Fang was a huge expenditure for a single powerful strike, while Boneshaping was a steady consumption to alter the structure of his bones. Once the process was complete, it no longer needed mana as the changes were permanent. Yes, he’d definitely spent the entire trek from the graveyard, practicing with his powers, and not thinking about what it would feel like to deliberately murder another human being.

Now, as he stared at the person before him, he wondered if he could really go through with it. Trapped in the mangrove before him lay an unconscious, slowly withering Sorren. The blue-haired young man with the Ability to conjure bolts of frost. Kalvin’s memories of the man were fractured, but he seemed to be fond of the easily excitable lad. He had been one of the first to defend against the monsters, someone who easily understood their power. He hadn’t tried to manipulate others, and he was someone who smiled in the face of despair.

With a grunt, Kalvin turned away from the tree and trudged towards the next. The barely breathing Sorren, still alive, trapped, and unconscious, was spared for now. It wasn’t long before he was stepping over the tangle roots of another tree and peering down at a stranger trapped inside its trunk. Kalvin’s lips pressed together in a thin line as he looked the middle-aged woman up and down. She wore a pressed black polo with a white logo, and tan khaki pants. It seems like she was at work when the Tower kidnapped her. Kalvin thought as he channeled energy from his center and pushed it down his arm towards his fingers.

One of the many questions Kalvin had considered as he’d walked to the swamp resurfaced then. Would the heart or head be better? He’d asked those questions over and over earlier, like what weapon is best for killing someone, would the victims here feel pain, what’s the fastest way… All those questions and preparations were for naught though, for as he stood there staring at the trapped woman, he knew exactly what to do. He formed the dark energy around his hand, congealing it from a black liquid into a hardened obsidian black metal in the shape of a spearhead. Then he pushed the energy beneath his skin, wrapping it around his muscles and bones, slowly encasing his arm, wrist, and hand so that every piece of his body beneath the skin was coated in a thin layer of energy. 

Slowly he moved his arm, carefully lining up the tip of the spear with the woman’s chest before thrusting forward. Both his body and his mind responded. The dark energy empowered his muscles perfectly as his mind synched with his body and he drove the spearhead straight into the woman’s heart, killing her instantly. Kalvin withdrew his arm and pulled the dark blade out of the corpse before backing away slowly. The thin white-gray murky mist that appeared around humans had appeared quickly, signifying the woman’s death. Unlike Kalvin’s previous at freeing people from the mangroves, the roots hadn’t shown an unusual activity. It only continued to slowly drain the victim as if unaware that she had passed on.

Kalvin lingered in front of the tree, waiting and watching for some sign that it had worked, or that it hadn’t. When something finally happened, it didn’t start from the body or the trunk. The first signs came from beneath him as the earth quivered. The thick gnarled roots of the tree shook and soon began to tear themselves out of the ground. The branches soon began to shake and tremble to match the heavy roots, then the tree cried. Not a soft whiny sob, but a high-pitched shriek that tore through the ever quiet swamp like a bat out of hell.

Energy wrapped around Kalvin’s ears, shielding him from the tree’s sonic assault. As the thrashing of the roots and branches grew increasingly violent, Kalvin stood amidst the chaos, occasionally dodging a stray branch or stepping over a root. Eventually, the thrashing ceased and soon after the screeching cries of the tree faded from hearing. Kalvin stood, his expression, hardened and unwavering as he took in the destroyed landscape. The overturned rocks, the disturbed earth, and the overwhelming scent of rot that came from the tree was still unpleasant. For better or worse, Kalvin had found what he’d been looking for. Something that could upset the balance of the swamp. Killing the tree’s prey had caused it to erupt with such fury that it had literally torn itself out of the ground and hastened its demise.

Kalvin carefully stepped over the surrounding wreckage, picking his way back to the center of the destruction. Once there, he stared down into the hollow of the tree. He bowed his head briefly towards the body amidst the ruin. 

“I hope to see you in the next life and have a chance to learn your name” he said softly before lifting his head and stepping deeper into the swamp.

Chapter 86

It had been two hours since Kalvin had entered the swamp and murdered someone for the first time. He’d killed over forty people. For each of them he’d watched them breathe their last breath, before driving his spear into their heart, and saying goodbye. He had figured that at some point, he would grow numb to the killing, yet each death added to his mental fatigue and weighed down on his mind which slowing his decisions and muddling his thoughts. Deliberate, slow steps carried him towards his next victim. Even with the lack of sleep, absence of food, and repeated battles, Kalvin felt no physical exhaustion. The amount of power it took to animate his body was tiny and the sole expenditure of his enhanced spear strike was immediately replenished with energy from the corpses.

As Kalvin neared the next mangrove, he glanced around, taking in his bearings as he circled the tree to see its occupant, his bad habit surfacing once again as he murmured to himself.

“About half-way do—” His words caught in his throat as he saw the person trapped inside the tree.

Even without the lab coat, or small name badge pinned to her, Kalvin recognized the woman immediately, Yelena Abramovich, the Director of Great Peaks General Hospital. Kalvin felt a cold chill run through his body, as just for a moment, he considered leaving this person, who’d only ever viewed him as an experiment, as Patient Zed-667. The first day in the hospital played out in Kalvin’s mind, his body covered in bruises, his mental state increasingly unstable as delusions and illusions tormented him. All the necrosis spread deeper into his body than ever before. His cousins, under the direction of his aunt, had carried him inside the lobby to ensure it didn’t look like they were abandoning him to the public. Instead of bringing him to the front desk or the inpatient area, she directed them to drop him in an isolated corner of the hospital lobby and leave him there while she went to collect a paycheck.

He laid there, unable to move, staring at a portrait of this very woman, someone who had never once come to greet him, despite the years he’d spent in her hospital. A torrent of emotion crashed through Kalvin’s mind, igniting a spark of anger amid those depressing memories. Immediately, he pushed with his power, forcing the energy through his body and into his mind, demanding it to crush the unnecessary emotional outburst. However, the second those chilling tendrils of darkness crept into his mind, Kalvin’s vision went black and his senses fell away.

He floated adrift in a black space. No aches came from his body, no scents of rot or decay came to his nose, no wind brushed against his skin. Everything here was absent. What happened? I was trying to suppress my rage, and I pulled my power towards my… my brain. I pulled Necrotic Energy into my mind, thinking it would extinguish my emotions, but… what is this? The moment Kalvin questioned his surroundings, they changed. Screens opened before him. Each of them displayed a scene of him waking up in the graveyard. First it was ten, then twenty, then forty, then eighty… Screen after screen filled the void till there were hundreds of moving images in front of Kalvin.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, his instincts whispered to him that he should be frightened, that his mind should be overwhelmed by so many scenes playing out before him at once, yet Kalvin found himself entranced. Each life was slightly different, ending in a somewhat changed way, or had some different bond. The first screens to close were the scenes where he died quickly, defeated by monsters, unable to move his body, or even sometimes betrayed by others. As the screen dimmed it sank into his body, and became one with his mind. Again and again Kalvin watched himself die, remembering his previous lives inside this Tower, while coming to a somber conclusion.

I haven’t just been here for twenty or thirty lives, have I?

Even what he’d thought of as his first life, when he’d saved Abigail from a monster just outside the entrance, wasn’t his first life. No, his first ten or twenty lives were nothing. He’d done nothing. He’d laid in his grave and accepted death, or wandered aimlessly around the graveyard, only to die to the weak ghouls. 

More and more memories poured into Kalvin’s mind and slowly he saw patterns in those suppressed lives. The most obvious thing he’d missed was that anytime he’d left the graveyard and wander towards the swamp, his life would abruptly end. The next pattern was something he’d figured out recently with Abigail’s help. That was the forgotten Climbers. There were over a hundred graves in the cemetery, yet only forty or so Climbers had appeared in the first few lives. Each time someone wandered towards the swamp, they’d no longer appear in the next life. A clear example of that was Yelena, the woman he’d just seen. She was someone who he would remember no matter what. She was an object of loathing. Someone whose face he’d always be able to pick out of a crowd because of his bitter feelings towards her and the hospital. The final pattern was something he only understood as the last of his repressed memories settled into his mind, and his senses were restored. There was someone who had orchestrated everything. Someone who’d gone into the swamp and still appeared in the next life.

Chapter 87

It had only been an hour since Kalvin had regained his lost memories, yet in that hour his entire being had shifted. The difference between thirty lives and over a thousand lives was most prominently displayed in thin white plates of bone that now covered Kalvin’s right side and the thin bone claws that protruded from his fingertips. All of that time spent fighting, polishing his skills, and honing his Abilities hadn’t gone to waste. His empowered, heavier form sank into the mud of the swamp as he stared down at the man he’d saved for last. Or at least second to last.

His memories of Sorren were even more vivid. Kalvin knew now that originally this blue-haired young man had been the first to organize everyone. He was one of the first people to fight off the monsters and die a valiant death. At least before that role had been assumed by someone else. Kalvin’s right hand flicked out. The bone white claws blurred forward faster than his eyes could track and perfectly struck Sorren’s heart, ending his life instantly. 

Kalvin stepped back to witness the death throes of the tree. Once satisfied with its passing, he bowed his head, said his peace to the departed Sorren and bounded back into the swamp. In sharp contrast to how he’d previously traveled, treading down the most worn path, or trudging slowly through the muck, Kalvin used quick spikes of power to enhance his muscles. In order to spring from surface-to-surface, never letting the mud slow or swallow him. The intensive changes he’d done to his body made it so that each heavy landing that should have crushed his weak frame now barely shook. Still, it could have been better. Boneshaping was one of the most prominently appearing Abilities in Kalvin’s lives. It would be fair to say that he’d spent months using the basic Ability to survive inside the Tower’s first floor. The only reason he hadn’t been able to strengthen his body more extensively was because of the lack of time and mana.

As he reached his goal near the center of the swamp, Kalvin’s mind turned to the person he’d saved for last. Abigail. In all of his memories, she’d remained a constant, unwavering, and rational person. Someone who could be depended on and trusted. One of his lives had been spent defending the graveyard alongside Abigail while the others ignored them and went out to explore the floor. In that life the two had bonded until finally falling to the Bone Sabertooth, but more importantly, she’d apologized and embarrassedly admitted why she’d called him a Zombie and despised horror movies so much. A red-faced Abigail had explained how her family used to gather around the TV every Friday evening and watch horror classics, like Day of the Dead, Re-Animator, and Evil Dead. Yet now that her family was gone, she could no longer bear to watch those movies. 

A smile spread across his lips as he lined up his hand with Abigail’s chest. The memory of her voice cracked as she forced herself to explain that she hadn’t been able to watch those movies since her family had fallen apart. It had been one of the few times the reserved woman had truly opened up to him, and she wouldn’t remember it. Kalvin drove his hand forward in a smooth, practiced motion. The sharp points of his claws perfectly pierced through Abigail’s heart and killed her instantly. Unlike with the others, he didn’t draw back after the finishing blow. He stood there and watched. A bittersweet emotion washed over him as he realized no one would ever remember what had happened here. No one would know the amount of time he’d spent with these people, fighting alongside them and learning about them. To everyone else, they’d wake up in the next life unaware of what had truly transpired inside the Tower.

As the dying shrieks of the tree before him finally came to a stop, the loud 'thump' sounds of the swamp’s children came to the forefront. Four of the massive Bark Titans were stomping their way through the root maze, bee-lining directly towards Kalvin. Still, he kept his head bowed and his eyes closed until he had said goodbye to the Abigail from this life, before slowly turning to face the armor-clad giants.

Chapter 88

The first Bark Titan swung its massive hand down. Its dull fingers grasping towards him, intending to capture Kalvin and turn him into food for the swamp. Even as the monster attacked, he stood perfectly still, calmly watching and examining the large hand, as if he wasn’t the one being attacked. Each of the Titan’s fingers were the size of an adult’s leg and looked like they could have easily crushed him. The Titan’s palm was larger than Kalvin’s entire body. If he was caught by it he’d be helpless and would join his fellow Climbers as a victim of the swamp. Kalvin’s face revealed no expression even as the Titan’s large fingers curled around him, only when the dense bark brushed against his pilfered clothing, did Kalvin whisper, “Gray Fang.”

As the rough bark fingers pressed down on him, a giant skeletal mouth appeared beside the Bark Titan’s outstretched arm. The entire mouth was a translucent dull gray, nearly two feet wide. It’s massive maw chomped down on the Bark Titan’s arm and cleanly severed it. The giant hand that had been seconds from capturing and crushing Kalvin dropped to the ground with a dull ‘thud’. Where Gray Fang had struck, only the monster’s stub of pink soft flesh trapped in the sturdy bark armor remained. Kalvin watched the pink flesh rapidly decay as the secondary effect of Gray Fang activated, Necrotic Damage. Necrosis, or the process of turning healthy living flesh into dead tissue, had seeped into the Titan’s arm and was slowly eroding away the Bark Titan’s flesh inside its armor casing.

Kalvin pushed through the giant dead fingers that had nearly claimed his life, walking towards the rapidly rotting enemy while calmly tapping at the floating screen before him. With each step his body changed. His left arm and hand slowly elongated. They grew denser and larger. His fingers curved slightly and lost some of their flexibility as they fused together and were shaped into a deadly instrument. Of course, the giant Bark Titan wasn’t so kind as to wait for Kalvin to finish the process. As he neared the monster, its right foot stomped down, clearly giving up on capturing Kalvin and intending to smash the insolent bug that had dared to harm it. 

Before the monster could squash Kalvin, a pitch black arm erupted from his right shoulder, slamming its fist at the monster's ankle. The monster’s foot slammed into the stone dais just beside Kalvin. His last second strike had thrown the monster off balance. The Bark Titan’s left leg had slammed down in front of its right leg, restricting its movement temporarily. One arm had been chopped off, and rot was quickly eating into the flesh beneath its armor. Kalvin stood perfectly still amidst the chaos. Not that he didn’t want to take advantage of the situation, it was that he couldn’t. Having split his concentration into forming the bone scythe, while simultaneously commanding his Necrotic energy into a lifelike form, Kalvin’s mind was working overtime, and as such, he could do little more than stand completely still as the other monsters charged towards him.

For Kalvin, these once menacing Bark Titans were no longer a threat. They were just an appetizer before the main course awaiting him inside the central crimson tree. Indeed, with all his memories now restored, Kalvin had needed some way of testing his Abilities and the hulking, armored Titans were the perfect test subjects. His animated arm of darkness stretched out, slipping behind the monster’s right leg as it struggled to stand up straight. Kalvin’s gaze flicked over the Bark Titan’s shoulder, waiting patiently, until it's reinforcements were within range. Just as the others came with striking range, Kalvin punched his fist of darkness directly into the knee joint of the monster’s armor. The heavy blow cracked the armor and annihilated the muscle beneath, sending the huge monster tumbling backwards directly into his comrades.

The resulting tangled web of limbs and bodies gave Kalvin the perfect amount of time to finish crafting his scythe. The pearl white weapon swung gently just an inch above the ground. It’s long curved blade had been designed for slashing, while the sharp pointed tip made it the perfect tool to break through armor. The downside though was if Kalvin had been ordinary, or had any muscle tissue or remaining nerve tissue left in his left arm, he would have been in agony. Because of his unique constitution, the otherwise painful process had been smooth and simple. He sent a pulse of Necrotic Energy through his left arm, commanding the bones to rise and move. Instantly the blade disappeared and a ‘whoosh’ sound filled the space before him as the scythe cut through the air.

Satisfied by both the fluid motion of his Boneshaping creation and minimal drain on his energy caused by his shadowy third arm, Kalvin advanced towards the Titans who were attempting to stand once more. He didn’t give them a chance to recover. As the foremost Titan staggered to its feet, Kalvin lifted his elongated left arm and slashed at the legs of the monster. If any of the other Climbers who had fallen to these foes were to see this, they surely would have shouted out at Kalvin, or told him how foolish he was to attempt piercing through their thick armor. Yet as the thin edge of his scythe made contact with the sturdy armor, the blade miraculously sliced through the monster’s midsection.

Even as the upper half of the monster toppled over and fell to the ground, it's one good arm weakly swung at Kalvin. In response, his shadow-limb extended and knocked away the monster’s last-ditch attempt at resistance. He sliced down the middle of the monster’s body, splitting it in halves from head to crotch this time before calmly climbing atop its corpse to glare at the next two Titans. If the Tower’s monsters could have felt emotion, he knew at that moment, they’d either be charging at Kalvin for revenge, or running in fear. Like all the monstrous creatures inside this Tower, they showed no signs of being deterred, and only blindly hurtled towards their deaths.

In the small amount of time it took for the monsters to close on him, Kalvin released the shadowy arm, giving up on the complicated form and dragging the dark energy back into his body, choosing to rely on his new creation instead of Necrotic Energy Manipulation. Utilizing the same elementary technique he once used against ghouls, Kalvin shifted to the right, putting the right most Titan between himself and the Titan on the left, giving him a brief one-on-one situation rather than letting himself be flanked. The Bark Titan before him seemed to appreciate that idea as both of its huge hands swung down at him, eagerly grasping for the being they still mindlessly considered food.

A step forward, a step to the left, and a single slash down was all it took for Kalvin to dodge the left hand of the monster while chopping off the right. His bone scythe had clearly sliced through the wrist of the monster, causing the hand to crash to the ground with a heavy thud. Once the Titan was disarmed, Kalvin slowly advanced, taking advantage of the opening on the monster’s right side to launch a flurry of blows. Each attack followed the same identical pattern, a smooth and simple slash down, then a brief pause for Kalvin to check the blade, before he took a step forward and repeated the process. A hand, then an arm, then the feet and legs. No matter what part of it the monster attacked him with, it received the same fate. Kalvin slowly climbed atop the once-terrifying monster that had kidnapped and nearly permanently killed Abigail and so many others. He gazed down at the helpless, shuddering mountain of armor-clad flesh beneath him, giving it a look of pity before calmly ending its life and turning to regard the final monster of the trio.

For a second, Kalvin thought the monster had hesitated, that its legs and arms had trembled. Perhaps some deep-rooted fear had been evoked inside the otherwise mindless creature, but no, that couldn’t be. He dismissed such thoughts as his eyes drifted to the monster’s heavily armored chest locking onto his target before murmuring, “Gray Fang. Gray Fang. Gray Fang.”

Chapter 89

“There should have been more,” Kalvin muttered as his eyes scanned though his surroundings. “There should have been at least four right?”

Since the fight with the Bark Titans, he’d been wandering on top of the root maze, trying to find the other Bark Titans. If he wasn’t counting the newborn from the previous life, he’d seen at least four behemoths racing towards him previously. Now after defeating three of them, all traces of the large monsters had seemingly vanished.

“Actually… It feels like the entire swamp has gone silent,” Kalvin murmured to himself as he gazed out at the ruined land behind him.

The constant fog made it hard to see, but he could still faintly make out the torn up earth, the uprooted trees, and the destruction he’d wrought. None of that was what bothered him. Instead it was the sickly sweet scent that had always been entwined by the smell of rot. Both of those strange odors were now missing. Even the muddy ground had been corrupted, as if the moisture of the land had been sucked away with each person he’d killed today. Kalvin’s lips parted as a thought crossed his mind, only for them to press together and remain sealed, in order to suppress his growing bad habit of talking to himself.

With the area around him now secure, Kalvin glanced towards the blue screen in front of him.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Embraced by Death

Level 18: 32%

Health: 4/4 (10)

Mana: 7/43 (53)

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

His mana was still recharging, and while he was pretty sure he knew where he’d be entering the central tree from, Kalvin would still need to wait awhile for it to refill. With nothing else left to do, his eyes shifted away from the screen and surroundings and towards the three large monster cores in his hand.

Kalvin had been tempted to open his mouth wide and try to swallow one of the large jawbreaker-size cores while harvesting, but a faint movement had stopped him. It was so subtle that the first he saw it, Kalvin had thought his mind was playing tricks on him. But now as he lifted one core up and peered into its depths, he could see it. A slowly swirling cloud of dust in the center of the core. For a moment, Kalvin considered trekking back to the graveyard and asking Izanami about this new kind of core. The other monster cores had been pure crystal, perfectly translucent and clear, yet the interior of this core seemed to be almost liquid.

After briefly considering his options and glancing at his Status Screen that showed he still had some time till his mana was recharged, Kalvin shoved his doubts down, pushed the first core into his mouth, and forced himself to swallow. The large orb seemed to dissolve as it made contact with his tongue, and in the moment before he swallowed it down, a bitter, rotten taste filled his mouth. Immediately, he bent over and spat at the ground, trying to rid his mouth of the sudden foul flavor. When the taste finally faded and the core had completely dissolved inside of him, Kalvin stood back up to find a new problem.

A red screen, completely unlike anything the Climber System had ever shown before hovered in the air before Kalvin.

WARNING! CORRUPTION DETECTED!

WARNING! CORRUPTION DETECTED!

WARNING! CORRUPTION DETECTED!

Each time Kalvin dismissed the red screen, a new one popped up, trapping him in an endless loop of repeatedly dismissing the Screen, but without being able to see his Status Screen there was no way he could see what was happening. Frantically he pressed the screen before him, dismissing the notification over and over, hoping that he’d be able to glimpse the Climber System Screens beneath and gain some clue. As he reached out to dismiss the screen for the hundredth time, the screen before him blurred and became unfocused. 

Did it break? Kalvin’s mind raced as he thought of what would happen here if he didn’t have the Climber System to support him in fighting against the crimson tree. No mana, no Abilities, no Necrotic Energy Manipulation. Will I respawn if I die while the System doesn’t work?

Kalvin stood there beneath the massive Crimson Tree that had drained the blood of his fellows, and for once, felt totally helpless. 

“With the System Screen unresponsive, it will be difficult to fight with this glitched screen obscuring my vision. It would still be possible if I can use my Abilities,” Kalvin murmured to himself, before attempting to activate an Ability. 

“Gray Fang.”

The worst-case scenario played out before Kalvin, as nothing happened upon the Ability’s activation. Next, he lifted his left arm and let out a hopeful whisper, “Boneshaping.”

Once more, nothing happened. The connection he felt while wielding the Ability before, the way he intuitively could craft and shape his skeletal structure was gone. Kalvin swallowed down the despair building within him and took a long deep breath before trying to activate his most important Ability.

Necrotic Energy Manipulation was something that stayed with him through every reset, something he had from the start, so as he closed his eyes and let his mind sink back into those feelings of despair, death, and remorse that resonated with his Energy, Kalvin clung to the hope that he could still wield this single power. As he focused on the feelings that came each time he’d been close to death or witnessed those around him pass away, Kalvin felt something stir within his body. A familiar cold sensation that slowly swept through his body and mind, rejuvenating him and cleansing his mind of the fear that had come with the loss of the Climber System.

When Kalvin opened his eyes, a small ball of jet black energy sat in his right hand. Focusing his will, he stretched out the energy, shaping it into different forms, testing his control over it by making all kinds of different weapons, before finally stretching it out over his hand and shaping the darkness into a simple black leather glove. It was a far cry from the animated fully detailed arm that he’d made earlier with the System’s help, but it was definitive proof that Necrotic Energy Manipulation belonged to him and could not be taken away by the System.

Just as he let out a breath of relief at the fact that he still had a chance to survive, the Screens before him shifted once more. The red warning screen and blue Status Screen beneath melded to form a crystal clear purple screen. Reading the contents of the new System window caused Kalvin’s mouth to twist into a grim, skeletal smile and his restraint over his bad habit to momentarily falter.

“With this, I can finally escape the cycle.”

Chapter 90

The interior of the Crimson tree at the center of the swamp was far different from what Kalvin had imagined. In sharp contrast to the ever-present scent of the swamp, the constant mud and muck that had sucked at his boots, the dangerous wilderness that he’d spent the last few lives struggling through, the inside of the tree was filled with opulence and extravagance. A plush red carpet split the room in two. On one side tables of food, weapons, and luxuries sat, while the other was full of strange paintings. Each painting contained the same content of a monster killing people. Some of the monsters like the Bone Sabertooth, and the Diegheists Kalvin could recognize, but there were hundreds of the large paintings. 

“Do you like my collection, Zombie?”

The arrogant voice tore Kalvin’s attention away from the distractions and debauchery displayed in the chamber, and brought his gaze to the back of the chamber, where a smirking golden-haired man sat on an opulent throne. When his memory had returned, Kalvin had been able to see the pattern of disappearances, and where the time loops had been perverted, almost everything bad that had happened inside the Tower, was due to this single man.

“Hello Thames,” Kalvin said coldly as he stepped onto the red carpet and began to walk towards the throne.

“Welcome to my humble abode, Zombie, or should I call you patient 667? That was it right? My memory isn’t exactly what it used to be after such a long time stuck in this prison,” Thames said mockingly as he leaned forward on his throne, his blue eyes fixed on Kalvin as he approached.

Kalvin kept his lips shut and kept walking forward, his eyes sweeping over the large armor-clad figures flanking either side of Thames’s throne, like a pair of royal guards.

“ANSWER ME MAGGOT!”

The angry command ripped through the peaceful chamber as Thames stood up from his throne and loomed over the approaching Kalvin, an expectant, cruel look on the blonde man’s face.

“I-it’s Kalvin,” Kalvin ground out the words, suppressing his annoyance and playing the role for now.

A smug smile spread across Thames’s face as Kalvin answered him, the man sank back down onto his throne satisfied.

“I’m glad you could finally make it, Zombie. Oh boy, was I surprised to see you sniffing around my trees earlier. Someone I’d thought was worthless at the start finally started to show some value. You’ve been coming into my swamp now meddling with my toys for several lives now. That means you must have unlocked some of your memories. I’m curious though… How exactly did you manage it?”

Kalvin focused on placing one foot in front of the other, attempting to ignore Thames’s outburst as he crossed the room.

“ANSWER ME!”

Once more a wave of command surged out of Thames and swept through the room. Kalvin lowered his head, hiding an expression of scorn from the man on the throne as he begrudgingly answered.

“A God gave me a quest.”

“Hmm… I suppose that makes sense. I was worried for a moment. When you showed up and started taking down my Armored Flesh Golems with a set of strange powers, it was clear something had gone wrong and you’d regained your memories. I was really worried there for a second, I even upgraded these two in a panic.” Thames paused to dramatically gesture towards the large Golden Bark Titans on either side of the throne, before he continued. “I was prepared for a long drawn out battle with the final Climber, the last survivor of the first floor. It would have been a fitting end for this forsaken place, but who could have guessed that at the last possible second you would eat a Demonic Core!”

Thames let out a laugh as he finished speaking, when it finally ended he waved a hand at Kalvin. “Stop, that’s far enough.”

Immediately, Kalvin felt the command that had been embedded within Thames’s words pressed down against him. His feet felt heavy suddenly, and rather than resist the command, Kalvin slowed his steps and only came to a complete stop at the edge of the red carpet.

“Well, I suppose there are things I could ask someone whose regained their memories, like what secrets or hidden pieces you’ve found in the Tower, but… It’s only the first floor, so who cares,” Thames explained haughtily before turning towards one of the Bark Titans that he’d called Armored Flesh Golems earlier. “Take him away and seal him in one of the trees, then position yourselves at the graveyard to capture the others when the floor resets.”

Kalvin kept his head down, his eyes shifting to the feet of the Golden Bark Titan that was lumbering towards him. His mind raced with ways to stall, to stop the Titan so he could get just a little bit closer to the Throne. “If you put me in the tree, time won’t turn back, so you’ll have no way of recapturing the others.”

“Oh? You can still talk freely after devouring three Demonic cores? That’s a surprise. I suppose my command was to ‘stop’, not ‘be silent’ so I suppose that makes sense. Regardless, since I’ve learned something new, I’ll take pity on you and tell you the truth of this Tower. First though, answer this, Zombie. When you regained your memories with the help of that God, did you think you were trapped in some kind of time loop?” 

A wave of pressure washed over Kalvin as Thames finished speaking, making it clear that the blonde man had commanded him to answer. Kalvin kept his eyes on the feet of the Titan as it drew near, while simultaneously beginning to stir the energy inside of him, and answering the question Thames had posed, “Was I not in a time loop?”

“I thought as much. Like a frog trapped in a well, all you could see was that small slice of sky above you, unable to know anything about the world you are in. No Zombie, this is not the Tower of Time, Chronos. This is the Tower of Death, Sheol, the place where the dead and the living meet,” Thames said scornfully, pausing briefly, as if expecting Kalvin to respond, and when he failed to speak, Thames continued. “You haven’t been stuck in a time loop. No, the Tower of Sheol isn’t that kind. You’ve been repeatedly killed and brought back to life through the power of the Tower with your memory being wiped each time the floor is forcefully reset. Only beings who possess unique bloodlines, or those who have been granted special Titles, could evade the Tower’s memory erosion. In your group only one such fool existed. Would you care to take a guess as to who before my Golem takes you away?”

“Thames,” Kalvin whispered in response.

“THAT’S RIGHT! The bloody fool was a double Ability wielder, a Radiant Weapon Holder and a Resplendent Soul. Hah! What bullshit luck! Once he realized he was the only person who kept his memories he planned to monopolize the Tower for himself. So he dove into the most dangerous place on the first floor trying to find treasure, and in return awakened me from my slumber. Ah, what a lovely tale. Heaven’s Chosen felled by their own arrogance.” Every other word that flowed out from Thames contained a hint of madness, and as he finished speaking a torrent of insane cackling laughter swept out from his mouth.

"Why though? What’s the point of this?” Kalvin asked quickly as the Golden Bark Titan came to a halt before him.

“You are just fertilizer for my roots. There is no reason to answer questions posed by my food. Take him away,” Thames said coldly as he leaned back in his large Throne.

With Thames’ command, the Titan before Kalvin moved, its massive arms swinging forward and its bulky hands stretching towards him. Just as the Titan’s fingers coiled around Kalvin, he felt his power finally reach its target. Kalvin dropped to the floor, letting the Titan’s fingers close around empty air as he triggered the power he’d built up. A trio of pitch black spikes erupted from the shadows of the Throne, piercing through Thames’ seated body and erupting out of his chest. A smile spread across Kalvin’s lips as blood splattered on the floor and his plan went off without a hitch.

“You talk too much.”

Chapter 91

Despite striking Thames, Kalvin wasn’t out of the woods yet, as the massive Bark Titan opened its hand upon its failure to capture him. It swung a large palm down at the ground that struck the wooden floor with a loud ‘bang’. The force of which sent Kalvin, who had barely rolled out of the way in time, across the room and into the piles of treasure behind him. As Kalvin crashed into the tables and boxes full of gold and jewels, he braced his body for a hard impact, only to be greeted by a soft sensation and a wet ‘squish’ sound upon impact.

Kalvin forced himself to stand up and take in his surroundings while readying himself to fight the final two Bark Titans. The closest Titan was prying its hand free from a crater it had created in the floor, while the distant one was quickly advancing towards Kalvin. Around him lay the remains of the sparkling treasures that had filled this side of the chamber. Upon impact with Kalvin, the illusion of glittering gold had disappeared, revealing the objects to be made of flesh and blood, tumorous lumps of flesh that had been disguised as luxuries.

He’d barely taken everything in and lifted his bone scythe to attack the closest Titan when a low groan from the corpse of Thames drew Kalvin’s attention.

“It's annoying when one's food tries to struggle,” an annoyed voice rang out from Thames as he sat up in the throne and reached up to snap one of the darksteel shadow spikes that was sticking out of his chest.

A quiet horror filled Kalvin’s chest as he watched the blonde man snap a steel spike in half like it was a twig, before slowly standing and tearing his body free of the spikes that had impaled him. Gaping holes in Thames’s chest showed the damage Kalvin’s attack had done, yet no blood poured out from the wounds. As Kalvin watched, the holes slowly closed, the flesh knitting itself back together.

The heavy footfalls of the Titans in front of him brought Kalvin’s focus back to the situation before him. Both of the Golden Bark Titans now stood within striking range. Their grasping hands having stretched out towards him while he’d been busy gawking at the freak who stood up after being turned into a literal pincushion. Kalvin dodged to the left, swerving away from the grasping hand on his right while slashing at the golden hand before him.

The unexpected noise that rang out through the chamber was not what Kalvin had wanted to hear from his attack. Worse was the jarring sensation that had run up his arm and echoed through his body upon his bone scythe’s contact with the Titan’s golden arm. The only upside of his strike was that he’d sent the massive arm off course, letting it slam into a pile of weapons which had squashed beneath its weight and splattered bits of flesh across the floor. Kalvin staggered back, his body still trembling as he took in the damage he’d done to the Titan. A slight chip in the golden armor was all his strike had amounted to. He could see a dull brown bark layer beneath, meaning that he’d pierced through its outermost shell, but at the cost of his entire arm nearly falling off.

“You know what? That kind of hurt, Zombie. Here, why don’t you have a taste.” Menace filled the voice of Thames. No, the voice of whatever had possessed Thames. With each word that slid out of its mouth a sense of alien coldness seeped into Kalvin.

Another grasping hand came down at Kalvin then. Dodging back, he staggered into several more displays while lashing out with his right hand. Chains of darkness emerged from his palm and wrapped around the Titan’s outstretched hand, webbing between its fingers even as the hand slammed into the wooden floor, having narrowly missed Kalvin. 

Suddenly Kalvin’s spine tingled, and his senses screamed at him. Instantly he abandoned the chains, throwing himself to the ground and letting the energy disperse to nothingness. It wasn’t fast enough.

The sound of something cutting through the air had just barely reached Kalvin’s ears when it struck him. A shard of the darksteel he’d conjured beneath Thames and attacked him with, something he should have dispersed and reabsorbed long ago, ripped through his torso like a bullet. Kalvin hit the ground hard, several of his ribs creaking as his chest slammed against the stone floor. While the large bone scythe was good for attacking, it wasn’t designed for much else, so as Kalvin had reflexively reached out to stop his fall, the scythe had helplessly scratched at the wooden floor, doing little to lessen the impact. 

Kalvin pushed off the floor with his right hand, forcing his body to roll across the ground, narrowly avoiding the massive palm that slapped down where he’d been laying. By bracing his body and slamming the tip of his scythe into the floor, Kalvin endured the resulting shockwave. As the force faded he dashed forward, guiding some of his Necrotic Energy into the bone scythe as he swung, aiming for the small opening in the armor he’d created earlier.

No clang or dull sound rang out from the hit this time. The point of Kalvin’s scythe had perfectly struck the Titan’s exposed bark, and the blade instantly tore through the bark and pierced into the flesh beneath. Having seen the effects of Necrotic Damage first hand from using Gray Fang, Kalvin sent a pulse of death energy through his scythe and directly into the flesh of the Bark Titan before dodging back. A trio of wooden roots erupted from the ground where Kalvin had been standing a moment before. Even with his swift reactions one of their sharpened tips managed to gouge out a chunk of flesh on Kalvin’s right arm.

The pain sharpened Kalvin’s senses. His mind closed off unnecessary thoughts, and once more syncing with his body, he entered into a battle trance. Kalvin could vaguely make out Thames’ berating him in the background by calling him food once more. The heavy footfalls of the other titan, and the trickles of thick coagulated blood that ran out of his wounds joined that. A single thought raced through Kalvin’s mind as he took in everything with his heightened awareness. This has to be my last death. With those words echoing through his mind, Kalvin reached out towards the translucent purple screen that had been obscuring his vision since before he entered the tree. His finger lightly tapped the ‘Yes’ button that had been waiting for him this entire time.

Demonic System Detected!

Necrotic Energy Detected!

Climber System Detected!

Unique Constitution Detected!

Title Prerequisites have been met!

Level Prerequisites have been met!

The Undead System has been unlocked!

Would you like to convert to the Undead System?

Yes/No

Chapter 92

Aflood of knowledge poured into Kalvin’s mind as he accepted the System’s conversion. Wave after wave of screens appeared before his eyes, each of them the same gloomy purple as the first. Kalvin pushed away the screens mentally, minimizing them easily as his mind smoothly integrated with the new Undead System. Turning his body to the side, Kalvin narrowly avoided another trio of root spears that shot up from the floor. He felt… different, in both good ways and bad. All of his aches and pains had vanished. Even the gaping holes in his arm and chest no longer hurt. His sense of smell was almost completely gone. The scents of wood, sap, blood, and rot no longer were a constant weight on him. All of them were now reduced to faint whispers.

In return for the lack of pain and the diminished sense of smell, Kalvin’s body felt stronger and more durable than ever. Most importantly, he’d gained a new way to see the world, that being Mana Sense. A mass of mostly red energy surged behind Kalvin. A quick dash to the left brought the offending object in view as it blurred past him. That was the Golden Bark Titan’s arm. Only now, to Kalvin’s new senses, it felt wrong like an infected wound that had been left to fester. Everything around him was tinged with the same writhing red energy. Kalvin knew what it was now. After all, it was part of him, part of his System. It was a power that enraged, corrupted, and devoured. Demonic Energy.

He could feel it building up in the nearby wall, the Demonic Energy growing thicker and denser there. Kalvin moved as the energy fluctuated sharply. A second later, another trio of root spears burst from the wall and narrowly missed his scalp as he ducked beneath them. Shoving off the wall, he ducked between the closest Bark Titan’s legs and charged at the uninjured one behind it. The monsters responded by trying to stomp down on him, still treating him like some insignificant pest they had to snuff out. Kalvin couldn’t be more thankful for their carelessness. Abruptly halting his momentum, the uninjured Titan’s stomping foot slammed down inches away from him, crushing the ground where he’d been headed and giving him the perfect target.

Kalvin drove his right fist into the side of the monster’s leg, his skin and muscles bursting upon impact with the golden armor. Miraculously, his hardened bones punched through both the golden and bark layers of armor. It was the first time he’d truly felt what it meant to be undead. To move his body consciously, without the use of his muscles or the many subconscious processes required by a human. With his arm now buried inside the flesh of the monster, Kalvin let his fingers stretch out and grasp as much of its insides as possible before ripping it out of the monster.

Once more, a series of arrogant ramblings came from the direction of the throne, just as another set of roots burst from the ground were Kalvin had been standing. This time, though, he had already identified the buildup of energy well in advance and was several feet away from the sharp wooden spears. Kalvin tuned out the buzzing noise coming from the Throne, while examining his right hand. The flesh he’d torn out of the Titan was rapidly dissolving in between his fingers, becoming nutrients for his own damaged tissue. In only a few breaths of time, his skin and muscles had knitted back together and wrapped back around his finger bones.

The rapid healing was interesting to Kalvin, but as he danced around root spears and dodged the Titans’ heavy swings, he got to observe a far more fascinating process. With his Mana Sense, he watched as the red Demonic Energy inhabiting the flesh he’d ripped from the Titan was slowly converted into the chilling black mist that represented Necrotic Energy. When the handful of flesh finished decaying, it crumbled to nothing, leaving behind only a small black marble of condensed death energy.

Kalvin restrained his bad habit, not wanting to broadcast his new creation to the monologuing monster on the Throne. Instead, for the first time since entering the Crimson Tree, he gave up dodging. Almost immediately, a massive golden palm appeared above his head and slapped down. Kalvin’s body folded beneath the strike, his knees bending and his head bowing as he sank to the ground. His shoulder bore the brunt of the blow. Even with his diminished senses and strengthened body, the attack had hurt. Kalvin could feel his legs being ground against the wooden floor, yet taking the attack had served its purpose as he’d been able to see the strength and limitations of the Ability he’d been granted upon becoming an Undead.

Bones of the Unhallowed (Unique): Your skeleton has been reforged and reinforced by the energy of death. The vices of life have been stripped away from your bones, replaced by the virtues of the damned.

Skeletal structure has been strengthened and hardened.

Vulnerable to Radiant Damage

Immune to Necrotic Damage

It was the single best Passive Ability Kalvin had ever seen or heard of in all of his lives combined and right now he was putting it to the test. Kalvin’s right hand punched up, slamming against the palm of the Golden Bark Titan with a brutal ‘crunch’. Both the flesh around Kalvin’s fist and the armored shell of Titan shattered upon contact, yet within the next breath, he slammed that same fist through the second layer of armor and directly into the vulnerable interior of the Titan. When his arm had fully extended and his hand had driven as deeply as possible into the monster, Kalvin spread his fingers and jerked his arm back, leaving behind the small black marble he’d kept clasped in his palm during his assault.

Kalvin rolled out from under the palm, letting it finally connect with the ground as he used Necrotic Energy Manipulation to unravel the orb he’d placed in the monster’s arm. With Mana Sense, he watched the dark mist disperse into the Titan’s flesh, rapidly converting the red Demonic Energy into Necrotic Energy which ‌fueled the mists to travel deeper into the Titan’s body. 

The result of the test hadn’t been as explosive. Kalvin continued to dodge the rather repetitive root spears, and occasionally parried a blow from the other Titan. While stumbling through the faux luxuries of the room, a slow, creeping death consumed the monster he’d experimented on. It shambled around the room aimlessly. It had only been a few minutes, yet half of the monster’s body was now withered and rotten. The direct infusion of Necrotic Energy had decayed the Titan from the inside out in a process that Kalvin was intimately familiar with. Necrosis.

Chapter 93

Bits of gold and bark clattered across the floor as the Golden Bark Titan collapsed, finally succumbing to the rapid necrosis. The monster before Kalvin wasn’t fairing much better. Its right arm hung limply at its side, while a steady stream of rot poured out from the puncture he’d left on its wrist. On the distant throne at the back of the room, an enraged Thames sat, still rambling madly while occasionally gesturing towards Kalvin in order to spawn another surge of root spears. 

Kalvin continued to tune out Thames, a smile spreading across his face as he dashed forward, eager to exchange blows with the final Titan. Its left hand came down to swat him away. If the heavy blow had connected, Kalvin would have hurdled across the room and slammed into a distant wall. So instead of blocking or dodging, he parried. His left arm swept out, the back of his elongated staff-like arm knocking against the inside of the Titan’s arm and sending its arm flying back. As the back of his scythe bounced off the golden armor, Kalvin twisted his arm, letting his arm swing up into the air. The blade posed above him like a scorpion’s tail ready to strike.

When the Titan had regained its balance and readied another blow, Kalvin struck, driving the point of his bonescythe directly into the waist of the monster. The sharpened tip slammed against the golden shell of the Titan chipping away its armor to show the bark layer beneath. The moment his blade rebounded off the armor, Kalvin flooded his left arm with Necrotic Energy and using his will, drove the blade back down onto the Titan in rapid, repeated strikes, like a jackhammer through concrete. In exchange for the heavy expenditure of energy, Kalvin’s scythe shattered the last layer of armor and punched over and over into the flesh of the monster, each strike widening the wound and leaving behind a lingering black mist.

Kalvin pulled his scythe free of the monster after over a dozen blows, letting it fall back to his side as he stepped around the monster. It toppled over, joining its brethren on the ground as Kalvin stepped back onto the red carpet in the center of the room, his eyes settling on the only remaining enemy. Thames was still standing before the throne, his arms gesturing wildly, while his lips flapped. The typically composed young man’s blonde hair was wild, and with each step that Kalvin took towards the throne, Thames’s expression grew increasingly enraged. The second Kalvin tuned back into what Thames was saying, he almost wished he hadn’t.

“You vile, filthy trash bastard! You are supposed to obey my commands! You are ruining everything! I am going to tear you limb—.”

“Is this everything?” Kalvin asked loudly as he continued to walk down the carpet.

“What!? What are you talking about? Why didn’t you stop when I told you to stop?! Why are you doing this!?” Thames shouted while fuming.

“Is this all you amounted to? I was worried that you’d be more of a threat. You’ve had countless resets to plot and plan, to strategize, but in the end all you had were a few mindless monsters, and a few repetitive attacks. I was ready to face a predator, a final boss, but it turns out you were just a parasite the whole time,” Kalvin answered calmly as he came to a stop at the end of the carpet, only a few feet from Thames.

“YOU! YOU ASKED FOR THIS! WHEN I RIP YOU TO SHREDS IN THIS LIFE I’M GOING TO—.”

Kalvin manifested a simple pair of black headphones covering his ears, pointing to them as he gave Thames a mocking smile. “Sorry, I can’t hear you.”

The being possessing Thames opened its mouth and silently, at least to Kalvin, howled in rage at his provocation. One of Thames’s hands shot towards Kalvin and he felt energy build beneath his feet, while the other hand reached upwards and grasped at the air. Kalvin let out a disappointed sigh at the predictable motion. A step forward was all it took to avoid any roots that would emerge and it placed Thames within striking range of the scythe. 

The hair on the back of Kalvin’s neck stood up and his body tensed. His instincts suddenly screamed at him that he was in danger. Kalvin had just started to look around, his eyes narrowing as he searched for the source of the warning, when it happened. Inches from his face, a beam of golden light descended, bathing both Thames and the throne in blinding light and completely obscuring them. His instincts screamed at him once again, DANGER! DANGER! DANGER!

Kalvin’s body reflexively jerked back, pulling away from the source of the danger before he could even process the warning, narrowly avoiding the flash of crimson and gold that emerged from the beam of light and slashed at the air where he’d just been standing.

Root spears shot up from the ground, piercing through Kalvin’s legs and lower body, but the wounds were a mere inconvenience for him now. No, as the light covering the throne dissipated, Kalvin saw the true threat of this encounter. A golden great sword in the hands of a demon. Thames’ appearance after being bathed in the light had undergone a radical transformation. His blonde hair had been replaced by glistening black hair and a pair of obsidian horns. His once tanned skin was now a maroon red, his previously lithe and athletic form was now one of corded muscle and power. All the changes to Thames paled compared to the sword he held in his hands. Gone was the slender short sword that Thames had previously summoned. In its place sat a large great sword with a shimmering golden blade over four feet long. 

As Kalvin pushed the Necrotic Energy inside his body against the roots in order to consume their life force, he unwaveringly gazed at the golden greatsword. On a deep primal level, he knew the blade could harm him. After all, it was dripping with Radiant Energy. A hungry smile spread across Kalvin’s face as he reassessed his threat assessment of the monster before him. 

This might be a decent fight, after all.

Chapter 94

“You insignificant worm! I’m going to tear you to pieces and rip out the foundation of this Tower!”

Kalvin listened to the Demon’s rant as he slowly circled the throne. His personality is still terrible, but with that sword, it’ll be a good fight, regardless. 

Walls of root spears had erupted from the floor shortly after the great sword had appeared in the monster’s hand, constantly pressuring Kalvin from behind and forcing him to move closer to the throne or take numerous hits. So for the first time Kalvin used his scythe for its original purpose, reaping the rows of roots that sprung up around him and breaking free of the Demon’s entrapment.

He’d just landed on the red carpet, well out of the great swords' reach, and momentarily safe from the roots, when the entire room shook. The illusion covering the luxuries faded, the paintings of monsters howled, and walls of the chamber shrank. Kalvin remembered then that this place wasn’t some throne room in a castle. No, he was currently inside a massive skyscraper-sized Demonic tree that drank the blood of humans and birthed monsters. Still, when the plush, red carpet Kalvin had been standing on suddenly lifted itself off the ground and wrapped itself around him, he was more than a little surprised. 

He flexed his arms, attempting and failing to tear through the carpet. As he did so, a thick viscous sap oozed out of the carpet. A shudder ran through Kalvin’s body as the liquid fell onto his body and he realized it wasn’t sap, it was saliva. What he’d been standing on hadn’t been a carpet, but a long tongue inside the mouth of a monster. As he struggled to free himself, the tongue of the tree curled inwards, carrying him towards the throne.

As it dragged him back into the wall of root spears, Kalvin gave up physically struggling, letting his body go limp in order to focus completely on his Necrotic Energy Manipulation. He forcefully expelled a wave of energy around his waist, solidifying and spinning it with his Ability. It briefly reminded him of a hula hoop looping around his waist again and again, picking up speed as he expanded it. Once the metal hoop was spinning rapidly around his waist in a steady rhythm, Kalvin transformed the outer edges from soft and round to hard and sharp. Immediately, his creation turned from a rather innocent metal hula hoop to a deadly buzz saw that shredded the long tongue wrapped around Kalvin.

He tumbled to the ground, his buzz saw scratching at the wooden floor, while the room itself let out a scream of pain and let the carpet-tongue thrash wildly. Kalvin canceled his creation, quickly drawing in as much of the remaining energy as possible, before rolling away from the Throne. Only after he was several feet away from the wall of roots did Kalvin stand back up and try to understand the situation. The tongue’s attack, although with the root spears, had clearly been meant to push Kalvin closer to the throne and the snarling Demonic Thames. But why?

Kalvin reached out with his new senses, focusing on the literally red-faced Thames who was spewing a litany of hate in his direction. As he narrowed his range and closed the distance to the throne, Kalvin felt it with his Mana Sense. Numerous thin tendrils of red energy ran between Thames’ body and the throne. Circling the Throne, he cut through the wall, blocking his vision and for the first time saw a side profile of Thames. Immediately it became clear why throughout the long battle with the Golden Bark Titans, Thames had only thrown ranged attacks at Kalvin and never left the throne to engage Kalvin directly. He couldn’t. 

A dense web of over forty roots had burrowed into Thames’s shoulders, back, and legs, connecting him to the Throne, almost like some strange life support system. As Kalvin walked in a circle around the throne, Thames turned with him beckoning with his free hand for Kalvin to come closer while mocking him coldly.

“You are going to die here, human. Soon this space will collapse and your body will be ground to dust beneath my trunk. There’s no escape for you, but perhaps if you come a little closer, I could spare you from suffering in the future.”

“You really are just a parasite,” Kalvin answered calmly as he continued to circle the monster’s throne, easily sweeping away the feeble root spears that tried to ensnare him. “If I cut away those roots, will you die? Hmm, probably not right? I imagine that would just leave you without a host and no way to lure anyone into the swamp, huh?”

“I’m not a parasite! I’m a Middle-Ranked Demon of the Abyss, you fool! No matter how you struggle or what you cut, there is no escape. You are going to turn into fertilizer!” Thames howled as he ripped a nearby root spear out of the ground and aimed it at Kalvin.

Kalvin ducked under the spear as it whizzed past him, a mocking smile on his face. “Who brags about being mid? Are you seriously happy about being ranked in the middle? Doesn’t that mean 50% of Demons are better than you? You know, I’m pretty sure that’s a failing grade in school.”

"Y-you have no idea what you are talking about! I am Gleipneist, a proud demon who ranks above thousands of others, while you are merely a pawn of the Gods. You know nothing!” The Demonized Thames hissed, visibly enraged by Kalvin’s taunting. As it spoke, it turned and reached to pluck another root spear from the ground.

That was what Kalvin had been waiting for, as the Demon turned away from him, Kalvin dashed forward, his left arm stretching out, bonescythe swinging down in a perfect slash, aimed not at the roots or at the Demon, but at the hand wielded the shining great sword. At the last possible second, just before Kalvin’s scythe would sever the Demon’s wrist and send the sword clattering to the ground, Thames’s arm twisted, contorting at an unnatural angle in order to flick backwards and block Kalvin’s bonescythe with the body of the great sword.

“Did you really think you could catch me unaware, worm? Did you forget that I’m a Demonic Tree? Just because this puppeted body isn’t facing you, doesn’t mean I can’t see you,” Thames said smugly as he counterattacked with the root spear, driving the sharpened tip towards Kalvin’s legs at the same time as a surge of Demonic Energy built up behind Kalvin.

As his scythe bounced off the sword, Kalvin felt a familiar pain pierce into the blade and travel through his body. Radiant Energy. Just that slight contact with the sword had chipped away at his life force and sapped some of his precious Necrotic Energy. He couldn’t let the great sword hit him, so he braced himself, letting the root spear punch through his right leg and stab into the ground in exchange for a counterattack. Kalvin flooded his left arm with Necrotic Energy, wrapping it around his bones and arresting the backwards momentum of his scythe before suddenly accelerating it forward, sending his bone blade slicing back down so fast that it blurred in his vision.

It was a hit! He cleaved straight through the monster’s wrist, loping it off, before dancing back to prepare another blow now that the only genuine threat was dealt with. As he gathered power to exploit the opening he’d just created, Kalvin watched the enormous sword and the hand carrying it fall. Only to be suddenly stopped in mid-air by a swarm of thin roots that emerged from Thames’s arm. The roots wrapped around the falling hand and forcefully dragged it back to Thames’s wrist, reattaching it in the space of a few seconds.

Chapter 95

The sight of Thames’ flesh being knit back together was horrifying, but as Demonic Energy built up beneath him, Kalvin was forced to give up thoughts on a counterattack. Twisting his right leg violently, he snapped the root spear in half, freeing himself enough to dive away from the Throne and another underground attack. This one was a particularly nasty swarm of needle-like roots that shot out where his feet had just been planted moments before.

Kalvin shivered as he stepped away from the vicious attack. It was only natural for someone who’d been in the loving care of a hospital for so long to develop a phobia of needles. Reaching his senses out, Kalvin grasped at the lingering death energy in the room, pulling from the Titan’s corpses, the darksteel spikes he’d used earlier, and any scrap he could find. As the power surged towards him, Kalvin tried a long range bombardment.

“I wonder, is your regeneration infinite?” Kalvin muttered as he formed a handful of floating barbed darts in the air before him.

“I am undying! There is nothing you can do, fool! Surrender!” howled the Demon from across the room.

“Interesting, because I thought that since you no longer have any humans to drain for blood, this fight is probably eating into your energy reserves pretty deeply. Didn’t you say that you had spent a lot to upgrade those Golems?” Kalvin said coldly before launching the first wave of attacks at Thames.

Thames brought the large great sword down across his body, using it like a shield to block several of the darts. Any retort the Demon might have had was lost behind the impact of numerous black darts bouncing off the great sword. It was okay though, because Kalvin was tired of hearing the same repetitive lines. Splitting his attention, Kalvin created and unleashed two more swarms of darts, flinging them at Thames from different directions in order to force the Demon to take the hit. It worked as Thames blocked the swarm on the left and half a dozen darts tore into his flesh. 

Not for the first time Kalvin wished he could see someone else’s health and Status. The fight would be so much simpler if he knew how much health the System thought Thames or the Demonic Tree possessing him had left. He was pretty sure, though, as he watched roots emerge from Thames’s body and struggle to remove the barbed darts, that he’d at least done some damage to the monster. Again and again, Kalvin peppered Thames with darts, draining his own energy reserves to deplete the possessed man’s health.

By the time Thames had pushed out the first six darts, over a dozen more had buried themselves into his body. It was a battle of attrition, but as more and more injuries piled up on Thames, Kalvin thought his remaining Necrotic Energy might be enough to overwhelm the Demon’s regeneration. With that in mind Kalvin, drained the energy from the fallen darts, recovering as much as possible while focusing on killing the Demon’s host Thames. Killing the host inside the other trees had finished off the other mangroves in the swamp.

For the next half an hour the battlefield was just that. Kalvin fired away at Thames, reabsorbing any of the darts that Thames extruded, and occasionally dodging a counterattack. It felt like he’d figured the pattern out and could win this fight. The only problem was Kalvin’s energy reserves were rapidly depleting. Even after the deaths of every other monster on the floor, and carefully reabsorbing any trace of death in his surroundings, Kalvin was about to run out of energy. Another wave of projectiles slammed into Thames as Kalvin tried to think up ways to absorb more energy or win the fight differently. He still had a trump card left, but he’d only be able to use it a few times.

Just as Kalvin resolved himself to use his last card and lay everything on the line, Thames let out an uncharacteristically loud scream. Kalvin’s musings scattered as his focus twisted back to the Demon. For the entirety of his assault on Thames, the man had never let out a single sign of discomfort, only occasionally spewing some nonsensical insults and vitriol. So what changed? Kalvin ceased his bombardment, narrowing his eyes and searching Thames for the source of the Demon’s agony. If not for the sudden motion of Thames shifting to the left to hide something, Kalvin likely would have missed it. Lodged in the throne behind the Demon was a single dart that had somehow missed Thames and pierced into the throne.

Kalvin reached out with Necrotic Energy Manipulation, dispersing the metal dart and revealing the truth. The sharp tip of the projectile had torn through the outer wooden layer of the throne and revealed a vibrant red crystal beneath. A single scratch on the stone was visible where the dart had struck. A smile spread across Kalvin’s face then as he dismissed all the numerous weapons embedded inside the Demon’s body, absorbing as much as possible to restore his reserves before he turned towards Thames. “Well, Gleipneist was it? Do you have anything to say before I destroy that throne behind you?”

“Go ahead! Destroy the throne. Who cares about a small piece of decoration?!” The Demon answered quickly, yet Kalvin noticed its voice no longer carried the same tone of outrage and mockery.

“Since you don’t mind it.” Kalvin lifted his hand and poured out nearly all his remaining energy into an array of glittering darksteel javelins that were forming the air before him.

“W-wait! Zombie! I-I mean Human! I think I was too hasty earlier. Perhaps we could work together to take over this Tower! I know where the entrances to the second floor are hidden and I even know about secrets you can obtain on the next three floors! How about we sit down and talk? Humans and Demons don’t have to be enemies after all, right?”

As the Demon spoke, Kalvin felt the buildup of Demonic Energy once more. Not beneath his feet this time though, but further out just in front of Thames’ body. It was a thick roiling bank of energy waiting inside the wooden floor. He kept a calm smile on his face, patiently listening to the creature prattle on without responding, while it tried to secretly build up its defense. Sure enough, when he felt the red aura inside the ground solidify, the Demon’s words changed rapidly.

“Pathetic fool! You should have accepted my offer instead of just standing there lifelessly! Perhaps you really are just a zombie! Even if I don’t fight you, you are doomed to die here, sealed inside my trunk!”

Gleipneist, or the Demon possessing Thames, gave out a cackling laugh as it gleefully pointed towards Kalvin and a massive golden-covered wall of wood surged out of the ground around the throne. Kalvin rather quickly firing off his javelins and watching them thud helplessly into the wall, dismissed them. The sight of Kalvin dismissing the javelins that had been threatening the throne caused another fit of mocking laughter to spew forth from the Demon.

“Finally realized how helpless you are worm? Don’t worry, your body will be a great fertilizer for my soil!”

Kalvin waited for the rising wall to reach Thames’s waist before answering, “Like I said before, you talk too much. This is a battlefield, not a debate. Gray Fang!”

Upon activating his most powerful Ability, a wave of Mana flooded out of Kalvin and a large pair of phantom jaws appeared in the air just behind Thames. Instantly they chomped down on the throne, tearing through the bark exterior and crunching into the crystal beneath with its fangs. When his Ability faded, it left behind a lingering Necrotic mist that seeped into the cracks in the crimson crystal, inflicting the Ability’s promised Necrotic Damage directly to the heart of the monster.

Thames let out a roar of agony. The floor of the chamber shook, and Kalvin felt the entire Demonic Tree shudder. Rather than slowing down or giving Gleipneist a chance to spew more nonsense or counter attack, Kalvin emptied all of his Mana in order to finish the fight.

“Gray Fang! Gray Fang! Gray Fang!”

Three more large phantasmal jaws chomped down onto the crystal heart, the vulnerable cracks expanding further with each bite until finally, on the third blow, the crimson crystal shattered. Thames’ body collapsed to the floor, the thin roots that had kept him upright rapidly rotting away, as the energy of death consumed the fallen Demonic Tree. Around Kalvin the interior of the tree aged at a speed visible to the eye. The few leftover illusions of opulence faded to nothing, and loud creaking sounds came from the trunk of the tree above and below him. It was finally over. In just one more reset everything could go back to normal. Everyone would come back to life and Kalvin could finally leave this place. As if the System itself agreed with Kalvin’s sentiment, a purple screen System Notification appeared before him.

Achievement Unlocked!

Congratulations #Error# Climber Kalvin, you’ve solo-killed every monster on a floor of a Tower! 

Achievement: Solo-Slaughterer has been recorded in the records.

You’ve earned the Title: Slayer of Sheol!

Reading the pop-up brought a sense of relief to Kalvin, tension faded from his body, and he let go of the iron grasp he’d kept on his mind. Fatigue washed through him as his concentration faded and a deep weariness settled into his bones. He collapsed to the ground, laying out on his back and staring up at the inside of the tree, watching as it slowly withered away while he collected himself. He wasn’t ready for the next life. He didn’t want to enter another time loop, to risk forgetting about all of this, or losing his new Undead System… But if what the Demon had said was true and the Tower was just resetting everyone to give the Climbers a chance, perhaps there was a way. Kalvin dismissed the Achievement Notification and laid there beneath the tree, flipping through his System Menus until the massive tree finally collapsed on top of him and sent him into the next life.

Kalvin Atrophros

Title: Embraced by Death

Level 19: 11%

Health: 1/1

Mana: 3/72

Status | Titles | Abilities | Achievements

——————————————————

Titles:

Apprentice of the Damned (Unique): One of the rare few granted an opportunity to learn about Death from a Greater Being.

Embraced by Death (Divine): Granted to those who have completed a quest from a Deity of the Death Domain.

Slayer of Sheol (Rare): Bestowed by the Tower of Sheol to those who have slain all monsters on a single floor.

———————————————————————

Abilities:

Bones of the Unhallowed (Unique): Your skeleton has been reforged and reinforced by the energy of death. The vices of life have been stripped away from your bones, replaced by the virtues of the damned.

Skeletal structure has been strengthened and hardened.

Vulnerable to Radiant Damage

Immune to Necrotic Damage

Life for Death (Racial): As an undead your physical body matters not, only the strength of the soul and power of your will sustain you. 

Health Permanently set to 1

All gains to Health will be added to Mana

All damage taken will reduce Mana before Health.

Mana Sense (Rare): View the building blocks of magic and material.

Boneshaping (Unique): Use Mana to alter the size, density, and shape of bones.

Cost: Varies

Gray Fang (Rare): Summons the jaws of Cerberus to bite down, dealing Powerful Piercing and Necrotic damage.

Cost: 10 Mana

Necrotic Energy Manipulation (Epic): Bend and shape the Energy of Death in accordance with your will.

——————————————————————

Achievements:

Solo-Slaughterer: Kill all enemies on a single floor of a Tower by yourself. 

+10% Experience from Tower monster cores you solo kill.

Chapter 96

Abigail Alstrom had been on her way to an afternoon class and upon stepping into the lecture hall, she had been met by total darkness. The next thing she knew, she was laying down in a shallow grave having been buried alive. When she’d clawed her way out of the shallow grave and into a fog-filled cemetery, Abigail knew something was terribly wrong, even before the screaming started.

She had stumbled through the fog, avoiding the numerous shallow graves, and taking care to stay away from the many screaming and panicking silhouettes she saw. Her rational mind had taken over as she neared the entrance of the graveyard. An open gate, an old-fashioned iron bar fence encircling the place, red eyes lurking in the mist beyond, and the strange, foreign environment were all leading her to a certain conclusion, one that she was both excited by and horrified by.

When the fog inside the graveyard lifted to reveal nearly a hundred people, who were even more confused and disoriented than her, Abigail felt confident in her deduction. There was no way that so many people had been kidnapped and buried alive in such a strange manner by anything mundane. The final nail in the coffin was when the mausoleum in the center of the cemetery had opened and a bloodied bride emerged. She floated forward gracefully, wearing a beautiful, albeit archaic, wedding dress, gauzy veil, and lacy gloves that covered every inch of her skin.

Abigail’s heart had almost beat out of her chest as she heard screams erupt from beside her then, without even turning around, she knew exactly what she’d find. Monsters. Indeed, when she did twist around to look, she saw several small, ghastly figures racing out of the mists towards the humans inside the cemetery. She knew then, without a doubt that this was a Tower, to be more precise, she was inside one that forcibly kidnaps people and gives them a chance to become a Climber, something she’d sought after for almost half her life, a Black Tower.

After taking a few moments to catch her breath and slow her pounding heart, Abigail clenched her fists and readied herself to fight off the monsters. She was going to defeat at least one monster, learn how to be a Climber, and conquer this Tower. If she could survive a Black Tower, she’d be able to join the front lines of humanity alongside her father. It was unfortunate though that in the short time she had been so caught up in her plans for the future that a gaunt man had emerged from the panicking crowd and slaughtered the monsters. 

Wearing a ragged hospital gown, a dirty pair of jeans, and oversized boots, the strange man had fought in total silence. Wielding a thin black chain in one hand and clutching a thick black book in his other, he’d decimated the four monsters, only using a single swing of the chain to tear through all four before stepping out of the graveyard and vanishing into the mists. Abigail had wanted to go with the man. It was obvious he was strong and that he knew, just like her, that this was a Black Tower, but as she reached the open gate of the cemetery, she stopped. The hungry, numerous red eyes within the fog all leered at her, daring her to step out. By the time she gathered enough courage to move, the man’s silhouette was gone, completely obscured by the thick fog that circled the graveyard.

With no obvious threat to confront, Abigail turned back to the floating bride and the mausoleum, her curiosity running rampant. There would be more monsters after all. This was a Black Tower. There would be hundreds of monsters they’d need to fight through in order to survive and find an exit. The thing she needed more than anything else was information. The bloody bride was the perfect source for almost all of Abigail’s questions. She'd introduced herself as a Guide and told them about the Tower of Sheol. Izanami even told them about the secrets of the Climber System and helped Abigail, along with a few others who had lingered behind in the graveyard, learn about how to use their Abilities.

She’d only been there less than an hour, familiarizing herself with her power, and learning about the varied Abilities of the half-dozen people who had stayed behind with her, when a System Notification blinked into existence in front of her, informing her that the first floor of the Tower had been conquered and that all Climbers were to make their way to the second floor as soon as possible. Before she and the others could make sense of what that meant, the man in the hospital gown returned. He pushed his way through their half-circle around the Guide, but rather than asking about the pop-up, the man stepped past her and dragged open the doors of the mausoleum.

Several of the others let out frustrated shouts at the man, chastising him for barging in so rudely, before they returned to their discussion about the recent System Notification. They hadn’t seen what Abigail had though. The others hadn’t been at the entrance of the graveyard when the monsters had appeared. They hadn’t watched the man, who shouldn’t have known how to use his Ability, or even activate his Climber System, wipe out a handful of monsters with a wave of his hand. So when he stepped inside the mausoleum, Abigail excused herself from the group and hurried to the open door. She was surprised to find someone else had come with her. He was a younger man with bright blue hair, and was one of the few people who’d gotten a combat Ability. He flashed her a smile and a thumbs up, which she returned with a half-hearted smile, before turning back to check on the man. The stone sarcophagus inside the room was open and the man was gone.

Abigail had charged into the room immediately, unwilling to be left behind by the mysterious man. It was instantly clear where he’d gone as laying at the bottom of the sarcophagus was a closed blood-red door. She reached out to open the door without hesitation, eager to uncover the mysteries of the Tower and catch up with the stranger to ask him about what he’d seen outside the graveyard. When her fingers brushed against the handle of the door, a System Notification appeared before her once again, congratulating and informing Abigail of her descent to the second floor of Sheol. Abigail had just enough time to let out a quick expletive before the darkness overwhelmed her and the Tower whisked her away.

Epilogue

Afamiliar cacophony of blinking and beeping machines greeted Kalvin when the darkness of the Tower receded. The numerous devices that had been hooked up to him were now blaring warnings and outside the door to his cell, he could hear the locks clanking and clanging as they were hurriedly opened. None of that mattered to Kalvin though. The only thing he was interested in was the purple screen floating in the air in front of him.

[ The Second Floor will open in 32 hours! Please use this time to prepare yourself for the Forest of Violence. ]

Author's Note

Thanks for reading it means the world to me!

If you liked the book, please leave a rating or review as that lets me know what book I should prioritize writing next.

If you want to read more from me, I'm currently working on the third book of the Traveller's Trilogy, once I finish that I'll work on Self-Necromancy: Second Floor or a secret project I've been cooking up, depending on how the response to this book goes.

Thank you to my beta reader Mccaro!

Thank you to my editor, Kino.

Cover Art created by Rusty Dela Cruz, check out his other work at https://www.artstation.com/rustee