Arthur stared silently at the floating words before him. The Seventh and Final Summit gave him far fewer answers than any of the previous floors, and all he wanted was to wake up from this dream.
How to say this gently?
Well, he wasn't waking up.
"Do I need to close my eyes?"
The thought barely formed before Arthur shut his eyes tightly, holding them closed for a few long seconds before peeking out slowly.
Sigh.
"Dammit! This is the final floor, right?"
He sighed helplessly, stepping up to an altar of white stones etched with intricate runes at the edge of the summit to confirm it once more. Checking every inch of this space was the very first thing he had done upon arriving, but he couldn't help himself.
Admittedly, the reward on this floor was different, but it didn't change the underlying reality: he was still trapped inside the tower, unable to wake up as he usually did.
What happens to my real body if I never wake up? Arthur wondered, crouching at the edge of the precipice and staring down at the crowd of challengers still struggling upward. This doesn't feel like a dream anymore.
Below him, countless challengers moved at varying paces—some had already given up on climbing, while others stubbornly pushed higher.
"Transmigration, huh? As long as I don't have to go to work tomorrow, I guess I could accept it," Arthur muttered dryly under his breath, taking in the full expanse of the tower.
His gaze drifted down toward the Sixth Summit just as the first challenger managed to breach it.
"Hm. It's one of them." Arthur recognized the face—one of the climbers he had passed back on the Third Summit. He hadn't spoken to them, but because so few were near the top, their faces had stuck in his memory.
"Hm?" Arthur squinted, leaning further over the edge as his eyes caught the lower stairs. "Why does it look so red down there—wait, is it moving?"
The bottommost steps were turning a sickening crimson, a bloody tide spreading upward toward the higher floors at alarming speed.
Faint screams echoed up from below, drawing the attention of climbers across all floors. Those already resting safely on the summits remained untouched and unbothered; the panic belonged entirely to the unfortunates caught stranded on the stairs between Summits.
"What the hell is happening? Is this another trial?" Normally, Arthur would have woken up the moment he hit the final floor. Since the tower was behaving strangely this time, he wondered if this was just another unannounced phase.
The formerly pristine white stairs and golden walls bled into a harsh crimson, submerging the entire interior in an eerie, blood-hued glow. The atmosphere instantly shifted from a competitive trial into a gruesome slaughterhouse, as if they were all standing beneath a blood-red moon.
Arthur watched vigilantly as the bloody crimson tide surged upward, consuming step after step, summit after summit, sweeping all the way to the Seventh Summit in seconds.
"What now?" Arthur murmured, his casual attitude evaporating. He had only been carefree because he knew the tower's routine like the back of his hand—this was completely uncharted territory.
Suddenly, the challengers caught between summits began to melt.
Yes, melt—their flesh sloughing straight off their bones in real time.
Arthur watched in grim horror as the flesh and remnants of every single challenger left stranded on the steps were dissolved and absorbed into the structure itself.
Down to their very souls, nothing was left behind.
Arthur paled at the sight.
"No way..." Staring at the gruesome scene of over a hundred challengers melting like butter in a hot pan was mind-numbing.
"What's happening?"
As quickly as it started, it ended quickly. The screams only lasted for an instant, and just like that, the crowd of challengers was reduced by over half in a single instant.
The moment the failed challengers were devoured, the remaining challengers still in shock at the scene were teleported out of the tower with a flash of white light.
Leaving the blood-red interior of the tower empty, the tower went back into hibernation as usual while awaiting the next awakening.
The teleportation was instant,
One moment they were all on various summits watching the final gruesome moment of their awakening, and the next they were all back at the point where they all started.
Outside the tower of Authority, but this time as Transcendents who awakened successfully.
The instant Arthur appeared outside the tower, he was shocked at the sight of the black tower before him, but right before he could appreciate the magnificent structure.
"You!!!!"
Arthur heard a scream of anger and curiosity as he was was he turned in that direction to see a challenger walking towards him, fist balled up, with reddened eyes, walking towards him in heavy steps.
Feeling his venomous stare, Arthur took two steps backwards while asking. "Me? Do I even know you?"
"You damn noble transcendents, keeping all the secrets to yourselves. He was only one step from the Fourth summit... One stupid step!!!!" With each word he spoke, he kept approaching Arthur, who kept retreating.
"Hey, come on. You can't blame that on me; I don't even know who you're talking about."
It started as a faint buzzing in his ears. Arthur shook his head lightly to clear his head, feeling a slight lightheadedness.
"What the- Hey!!! Hold on, something's-"
Whoosh! Bam!
Arthur felt a sharp pain from the spot where he just took a punch. He wasn't one to take a punch lying down, but the dizziness and buzzing were making it impossible to focus.
He didn't even see how the stranger moved or how he got punched in the face because of how disoriented he was
Thud!
He landed heavily on the floor. Arthur tried his absolute best to stand when he was suddenly pinned to the ground, with one punch after another going for his face.
Well, he would have felt all this if he hadn't blacked out from the influx of memories rushing into his mind.
Fortunately, he came back to in a few moments to see another punch heading for his face.
Bam!!
Right on his left eye,
"Ow!! Dammit!! Whose kid is this?" Arthur complained but was unable to break out of the lock, watching another punch coming for his face helplessly.
Suddenly, the punch was stopped by Vihr, who was unable to keep watching the scene continue. Seeing who it was, the enraged, newly awakened transcendent calmed down significantly.
"You better stop here. I'm not sure what your excuse is, but surely you're not dumb enough to blame the failure of your friend on him." While speaking, Vihr glanced at Arthur out of the corner of his eye. He wasn't going to interfere because he wanted to see what a Transcendent who reached the Final summit could do.
But after watching Arthur receive punch after punch without being able to fight back. He decided to step in.
"I understand that you feel pain at the moment, but no one is to blame." Vihr, after recovering from his near-death experience, had regained his cold expression as he stared at the transcendent who was acting out in warning.
Looking at Arthur, who was sprawled out on the floor with a bruised and bleeding face, smiling crazily, he immediately became confused. "Did he lose his mind?"
Meanwhile, Arthur was sorting through thirteen years of memories while enduring the sting on his face. As much as he wanted to react, his mental energy was drained, so he just lay there.
"Ha!! I must be the first character to get a good thrashing right after arriving in a new world."
[Divine Authority: Genesis Resonance]
[Soul Authority: Soul Furnace]
[Divine Ability: Reality Strings]