Chapter 4: [ The Tower of Will ]
When the blue Pilar vanished the burned marks on the ground remained along with a big stone right in the middle burn.
Aria looked at the spot in fear. No remains left. Both Rex and the director were evaporated in the air. She was on the verge of the tear when the stone cracked in two.
"Oh! That was suffocating." Rex came out of the stone, behaved as nothing happened.
She looked at him with big round eyes. Couldn't believe the event that unfolded in front of her very eyes. After a moment of hesitation, she jumped at Rex, buried her face in his chest and went vocal. All the restraint loosened, she cried her eyes out.
Rex knew that they have to move from here as soon as possible but didn't stop her. He just patted her head.
When the tears came under control, Rex said, "We have to move now."
She nodded, "Let's go to the Epiterium."
Rex was surprised at her words. Epiterium is one of three important civil service building of the City. Those were the places he wanted to avoid right now. If they face another assault like this, Rex had very little faith in himself that he will be able to survive it much less protecting Aria. Without the help of the wind, he would have been dead a long time ago. But that was not important right now.
Before Rex could ask it, Aria said, "I don't know why but they want us to go there."
"They?" Rex was confused by the choice of the words.
"They are the spirits of those who had turned into the beasts."
"What? you can see the ghost?"
Aria nodded, hesitated for a moment before she chose to talk, "Brother sister Mayuri has gone."
The heart stopped for a moment. He didn't know what to say. Feeling guilty she continued, "When you came at night, she was here, but I couldn't see her now."
'That wasn't just a dream, she had left for sure.' Rex put up a smile rested his hand on the chest, "She had left. It's good."
"Brother." Aria hugged him again, "Brother I won't leave you."
"Look at this girl, trying to comfort me." Rex pushed her away but was very happy in the heart. 'Mayuri, sorry. I will move on. I have to, at least for my family.' Rex's mind just became clear, "well how do you know that the blue barrier will break if I touch it?"
Aria was surprised. Rex was confused too. "Is the wind thing is also a spirit too?"
Aria stopped before confirming it with a nod.
"Then how you are able to talk to me?"
"Brother we have to move before it is too late." Rex compiled without hesitation. As long as she didn't want to say it loud he won't pry.
******
"This is odd." It was not hard to understand what he was indicating.
The building was over 14 stories tall. Over 50 meters area around the building was open and covered with road tiles. But that was yesterday. Now the place was covered with knee tall grasses.
"The increased amount of mana in the air helped the plant life to mutate. When the human is turning into beast there is no problem if the same thing happens to the trees."
"That is not what I am talking about. It takes 20 minutes to come here but it took more than 2 hours today. Do you know why?"
Arai was a little surprised by the question. It was obvious. "Because there were the mana beasts."
"What about here? Why there is no mana beast?"
"Maybe because there were no people here at night."
Rex just shook his head but next view changed his mind. This was the 21st century, but the Epiterium in front of him looked like straight out of the medieval fantasy. The sophisticated office turned into a tower of Myth. Spikes sprouted out of it, the whole building was wrapped into vines, glasses of the building could not be seen any more. It looked like it had been abandoned ages ago.
Aria looked frightened. "Brother, we…" Aria who was going to say something turned into the statue.
"Aria, Aria." No matter how much he called she didn't move. Tears started to fall from her eyes.
"Brother we have to save her." The fright was could not be seen anymore. Her face was resolute.
"What happen?"
"Brother we have to save her," she repeated again.
"Someone is controlling her." The wind whispered. "Get her away from the tower."
Nothing was making sense to him. But when he tried to move her from the spot he failed to do so. Even with enhanced strength, he couldn't move her from the spot.
"It's like we have to go there." The wind whispered again.
"Isn't there any other way?"
The wind didn't answer this time. Rex was forced to move towards the epiterium. Aria followed him a step behind though she was still in a daze.
*Growl*
With the growl, the wind around them vibrated. At the first look of the beast, a chill ran through his spine.
It would have been a dog, now it was a beast of the height of 15 feet. On its dark black body, there was a patch of azure around its eyes and the paws. Even at the middle of the summer, it was giving off white smoke off its mouth.
It glared right at the eyes of Rex. 'Run'. A voice was screaming inside his head.
"That is the guardian. You have to beat it to enter." The wind whispered.
"Beat that thing? Is that even that possible?" Nobody answered him. Rex turned to look at Aria who just stood there with a blank expression in her eyes. It looked like there was no other option. Rex sighed and walked. This time Aria didn't follow him.
*Growl*
The beast gave out another warning. Its eyes never left Rex for once. With each step, its voice got louder and louder.
'Why is it not attacking?' Rex was about 10 meters from the beast but it never attacked. But all that changed on the next step.
"Duck." The moment he listened to the order his body moved on its own. But it was a moment too late. With a sharp pain, his right cheek went numb. He touched the wound, the blood was already frozen solid.
"To the left." Rex didn't have the time to tend his wound before he was forced to move again. The spot where he was standing was now impaled by a long shard of ice.
Those shards continued to rain down on him. Rex moved like an agile leopard, even went on four when needed.
Rex jumped back. The raining of shards stopped. Rex stood straight. The beast was still growling at him but wasn't attacking.
When he looked around He understood the reason.
"The area of attack is about 10 meters." There weren't any shards of ice was outside the 10 meters around it. Ignoring the growl he removed the frosted blood of the wounds.
"Wind help me to reach it" There weren't any answers. Rex stretched and charged.
The shards started to fall again. But with winds direction, he moved with minor injuries.
At 2 meters distance, the raining stopped.
For the first time, the beast moved. With a single sweep of the paw, Rex was sent flying.
The beast was about to step back. But a punch in the head made it lose the footing.
The beast was caught off guard. But it wasn't weak. It glared at Rex before charging at him. It looked with disbelief that its second paw sweep wasn't effective.
Rex took the blow head on. His body turned into the crystal again but he was alive. He took few steps back but that was all before he jumped to punch.
Rex punched its head again.
Rex felt it would dodge it but it took the punch head on. He was surprised. The paw attack followed.
It had little effect on it. Rex smiled and punch him.
"How long you are going to continue it?"
It wasn't the wind but a cat, a small pure white cat. It appeared on the back of the beast.
The air around the beast changed with a moment's notice.
Rex was caught off guard. He could hear the whisper of the wind but it was too late. It bit the head of Rex, shook vigorously before spitting out.
There wasn't any blood but the crystal head was unrecognisable.
"You idiot do you still think you are just a dog?" The cat continued to talk as the beast turned and walked back.
They didn't notice it before but the shine of the Aria's eye returned for a moment before a beam of light shot out and hit Rex.
The broken crystal head started to reconfigure.
"Idiot why did you stop?" The cat grumbled. But the beast turned to take a look at Rex. If anybody else was here they would have thought that the beast was smiling.
"What is that thing?" The cat murmured. Five ice orbs formed above its head. Even before Rex could steady his footing ice bullet started to rain down on him.
At the face of bullet barrage, Rex smiled and charged. He wasn't dodging nor the wind was giving direction. He was taking all the attacks head-on. The ice didn't have that much penetration capabilities. All were deflected from his crystal skin without leaving a mark.
"What are you doing idiot, attack him." the cat was anxious. But it was unfortunate for him that Rex wasn't willing to face the paw attack head-on this time. He didn't dodge it rater used it to jump on the back of the beast.
Before the cat could cry again Rex caught it by its mouth and jumped down. The cat was glaring at him. The hand Rex was using was covered in ice.
"That is not effective against me." Rex slammed the beast's head on the ground. The blood splattered under his crystal hand. Rex shook off the blood along with the ice off his hand.
'Not all the beast are mutated to be strong.' Rex had started to understand how the new world work. Rex looked at the beast. There was reluctance in its eyes, but it charged nonetheless.
It didn't take long. The beast was subdued under Rex. The miracle happened after that. The body turned into dust and vanished in thin air leaving behind a simple key and a stone.
"Brother take it." Rex jumped in fright. Rex turned to be greeted by the same vacant eyes. Rex sighed and moved towards the building.
After he moved some distance from the spot they last fought a furious wind rose. When the wind stopped the cat and beast pair appeared again. Rex looked at them. What he saw wasn't a beast but a man smiling at him. The illusion remained for a moment.
"Those souls are contracted to the tower."
"Tower?"Rex didn't understand how a spirit could do a contract with a tower. To begin with, he didn't believe there is something called spirit. But as usual, the wind didn't answer.
"Brother put the stone on the stele." Aria's emotionless words attracted Rex attention to the stone stele. It was in the middle of the grass. If one doesn't look for it with care it would be easy to overlook. But the words on the stone stele attracted Rex's attention.
[The Tower of Will (incomplete)
Difficulty: Unknown.
Conquest attempt: None.
Successful attempt: None.]
'The building was called Epiterium. Now it is called, The tower of will. Who the hell changed it?' There were many questions in his mind but under Aria's constant urging he put down the stone one the stele. Even before he could react a bright light enveloped both of them.
A moment later the light settled. There were no remains of the either of them. The only change was on the stone stele.
[The Tower of Will (incomplete)
Difficulty: Unknown.
Conquest attempt: 01
Successful attempt: ???]
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
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