The Tower of Authority,
The Rumbling sounds came suddenly,
Although Transcendents had figured out the timing for the tower's activation down to the exact day of awakening, determining the precise time it would open was impossible; the opening was entirely random.
The sound of rumbling echoed for miles, but there was no physical disturbance at all.
No shaking, not even a tremor in the wind.
It was almost as if the tower existed in a dimension separate from the world itself.
At this moment, along the frame of the colossal tower were billions of golden glyphs appearing one after the other. These glyphs weren't stationary-they intertwined and connected across the dark stone surface of the tower.
As more appeared, the same rhythmic movement could be seen happening if one looked closely.
And finally, the moment when the entire tower lit up in mysterious splendor came, and with a final flash of light, the challengers gathered outside were instantly teleported inside, leaving an empty awakening ground as every glyph on the surface vanished as quickly as they appeared.
This phenomenon was the usual, but this time something changed.
Beyond the clouds, far at the top of the tower where eyes wouldn't reach, a series of golden glyphs lit up suddenly. But only for a split second, before dimming down as quickly as they appeared.
"Hm?"
The Principal instantly sensed a disturbance and looked upward. Within the mist that surrounded his form, a pale blue light lit up as he stared past the clouds in the position where he sensed a disturbance.
His gaze met only the usual mottled black surface of the tower. Seeing nothing out of the ordinary, he kept staring until Telmear broke his focus.
"Did something happen?" Telmear asked, this time looking at the mist which was rolling slowly around itself.
"I.. I'm not sure... I sensed something..." The principal's voice sounded genuinely bewildered.
Hearing this, Telmear knew something was wrong. Among all the abilities the Mist demon was famous for, His senses were the most terrifying.
There were a few things in the world that could escape his notice if he tried.
So hearing him say he wasn't sure about something he sensed was deeply unnerving.
"Well... whatever it was. It left my detection range and fast enough without leaving a single trace behind." The Principal decided not to dwell on it. He wasn't even entirely sure he had felt anything at all; it had barely flickered across his perception.
Within the Tower, the space was vast—far larger than what the structure should have been able to hold from the outside, but nobody questioned it. The tower was a universal wonder. Even if they were all transported into a different world the moment they arrived within the tower, no one would bother questioning it.
The tower was empty, save for the challengers who just appeared at the very bottom of the white stairs leading to the top of the tower.
"So this is the tower..."
"We better start climbing; we don't have forever."
Conversations like this rang out everywhere, especially among challengers who knew each other before the awakening. A few had already taken their first steps without a word. Purely focused on climbing.
Others took their time observing the crowd.
Meanwhile, far behind them all, an unassuming white-haired challenger stared blankly at the crowd while thinking to himself.
"Same white stairs, same gold walls." Arthur was a little confused, especially when he opened his eyes to the crowd of fourteen-year-olds.
An understated source note: the author's official page publishes this chapter, while this copy was made without consent.
"Why the crowd this time? What changed?" Arthur, having been here several times each time he fell asleep, was shocked to see that he wasn't alone here as usual.
"Did I do something different before I fell asleep?"
Recounting his day, he thought back: "I was on lunch break with Liz... then she left right after eating. Then... oh. I lit a cigarette to relax a bit before heading back to work."
Arthur frowned slightly this time as another thought crossed his mind.
"Did smoking change the dream this time?
"Ugh... I better-"
Tap tap
Arthur froze as someone tapped his shoulder, breaking his train of thought. He turned around to find a young blonde girl looking at him intently.
"You better get out of your head and start climbing... no one knows when the tower's gonna end the awakening," she said sharply.
Without waiting for a response from Arthur, she moved for the first step quickly
Leaving Arthur speechless and clueless about everything she just said.
"What awakening... is this a tower?"
"Jeez... you stop smoking just for a few months, and suddenly one tiny bump gets you high as a kite."
Looking around, he saw that he was the only one left at the base.
The crowd of kids climbing the tower in slow steps gave him a sense of calm, unlike the other times he had this dream, climbing all the way to the top alone.
"What a weird dream..." Arthur performed a little stretch while thinking to himself.
"Anyway.... I'm never able to wake up till I complete the climb, so..."
"I might as well join in and get it over with quickly so I can wake up.... still got a lot of work to finish up."
Just as Arthur raised his foot to take his first step, he paused, suddenly noticing something.
"What's this? Why do my hands look so small?" Finally noticing that it wasn't just his body that looked small, his outfit was different from his black suit, which he wore at work.
"Did I dream up a new outfit too?" Looking at his clothes properly, A simple black shirt and navy blue colored pants, and a single silver ring adorning his left thumb.
"Quite the place to wear a ring... what's happening here?" Arthur grew more confused with each discovery.
"First the crowd, now it seems I'm not in my own body? Isn't this a little too much for a single cigarette?" Seeing that his thoughts were not getting any logical answers, he shook his head, blocking out all the random thoughts.
Only focusing on reaching the top of the tower so he could wake up.
Clenching his teeth, he slowly took his first step.
The instant his right foot connected with the tower's staircase, the reason for clenching became obvious.
Pain.
Through his locked jaw, a muffled groan of pain rang out, but without pausing, he placed his second leg on the next set of steps quickly, and just like the first, a wave of pain hit him.
Arthur had felt this exact sensation over a dozen times at this point, climbing the tower in his dreams every night just so he could wake up, but he'd never found a way to get used to the pain.
The pain felt non-physical and impossible to pinpoint.
The feeling radiated from his entire being with each step taken, and the only way to avoid the feeling was pretty simple.
Stay in place.
As long as your foot touched any step climbing upwards, you'd get the instantaneous pain attacking your entire being for no longer than five seconds before subsiding.
"Dammit.... I can't even scream as usual because it's crowded this time." Arthur thought to himself while moving one step after another.
Although he could skip steps to climb faster, he had learned that lesson the hard way. During his countless previous attempts, he had discovered that while there was no rule explicitly forbidding skipping steps, the penalty was brutal—the pain would double or triple compared to taking them one by one.
Remembering that lesson, he made sure to take it one step at a time, avoiding agony severe enough to make him pass out.