章 52: Don't Talem about Kuretz...

After resting Reima immediately starts heading towards the tower of Adal, he thinks over his plan and decides that killing the marked ones inside the tower before heading straight for the Colosseum would be the quickest option. As he's dispatching wayward Prospects he kicks open a door blocking the path ahead and spots a familiar face... Or mask...

Talem "Oh, Reima. I didn't expect you to get here so quickly."

Reima "You sound like you were expecting me?" He says as he looks at the alter besides Talem.

Talem "Partially? I suspected you would be fine and even be able to defeat those blasted Twins, I just wanted to see how you're progress is."

Reima "Well, it's going as well as you can hope... I'll have to Kuretz soon, any hints?"

Talem nods his head, "I know Kuretz well, friends you could consider us. He's different from all other Prospects here." Reima raises an eyebrow.

Reima "How so?"

Talem "Well, he wasn't a following of the Guides. I don't believe the mask he wears initially belonged to him, the blood splatter that he can't clean from it will attest to that."

Reima is taken aback at the new information, "He can remove masks?"

Talem "Perhaps... Perhaps he's just laughing at my expense, he did say once that the real expert in the Fold sits atop the tower of Adal... He must mean Risryn.

Reima nods his head as he listens, "Still, my question remains... Any hints to defeating him?"

Talem "Yes, I don't know how but he's able to control insane Prospects... Some sort of mind manipulation, if you fight him be weary of his puppets."

Reima "Thanks." He claps Talem on the shoulder as he leaves to find the nearby marked one.

The tower of Adal's only light sources are the small Essence lamps and the large windows allowing sunlight through, probably due to their value most of the lamps have been stolen resulting in most of the tower being shrouded in darkness. During the night it is probably impossible to see anything let alone fight, Reima has an advantage in this regard due to his mutations. His low light vision is excellent which allows him to eliminate most insane Prospects one by one, he makes sure to allow them a few moves so he can meditate on them later but he doesn't dawdle by prolonging a fight.

One thing that pisses Reima off the most is hard to find things, hidden items, hidden quests and most importantly, Hidden enemies... The marked one in the tower of Adal is by far the most annoying enemy due to their hidden location. It takes Reima a couple of days of constant fighting through the hordes of Prospects to stumble across her location. Once there he makes his displeasure known by tiring her out and beating her black and blue, he sends her back to whatever interdimensional space they dead Prospects go to before re-spawning. While Reima was searching for the annoying Marked one he also found the shimmering door that leads to the essence mines, that allow you to ascend the tower and fight Risryn. Looking at the map that is glowing on the doors surface he sees that he only need to kill two more marked ones and Kuretz for it to open.

Reima eventually leaves the tower by travelling along the large bridge that seems to be the main entrance, he remember in the game that a path leads directly to the Colosseum from here.

He travels the path for around half a day during which, you guessed it. More fighting, while the constant fighting is wearing down on his spirit, his physical capabilities are rapidly improving. With each fight he feels himself becoming stronger, more proficient in fighting.

As he walks through a rickety old wooden bridge he continues forward through a destroyed sand stone hut and stops his feet. Standing on the highest point around Reima observes the complete and utter devastation of the surrounding city. He had just entered the oration quarter, the main place of residence for the majority of the cities civilians.. Or was. The disaster that struck the city left the tower of Adal relatively intact, but this place looks like multiple earthquakes follows by tornado's had recently passed through. Looking around he spots Prospects just doing their usual thing, fighting and self harming... He also sees a number of stone statues that are probably monuments for those lost in the destruction. Reima spots the Colosseum in the distance and starts descending from the ruined building that somehow are still standing.

Reima absent-mindedly defeats the Prospects that attempt to stop his progress as he salvages various items from the buildings. Inside some of the more hidden buildings he finds large pots of essence, due to their remote locations they probably haven't been looted yet. After storing all the interesting loot inside his Folded space Reima eventually reaches the outskirts of the Colosseum, knowing from the game that the Marked one is at the highest point he decides to get rid of them before he fights Kuretz. He stealthy travels up the ruined steps, blinking across gaps that he wouldn't be able to cross before ending up before the Marked one. Their mask seems a lot wider than all the others he has seen but Reima ignores it as he blinks behind them and Sparta kicks them off the overlooking ledge. They land inside the Colosseum with a thud which draws the attention of the black mask wearing puppets inside. As they scramble towards the area the Marked one had landed a man walks out to see what the commotion is.

Seeing what must have happened the man looks up to where Reima is revealing his blood stained mask, Kuretz.