TS5: Chapter 9 (Patreon)

When Thorn and the others stepped out of the portal into the endless blue sky of Intra Mundum, Mina and Corvo gasped in wonder.

"This, this is incredible," Corvo said as he looked around.

"I know, right? Like something straight out of a fantasy," Thorn said, chuckling.

The platform they were on was wide and empty, designed for receiving individuals coming to the tower for the first time. A moment later, another platform whizzed over, appearing in front of them. On it stood GennonOne, alongside GennonNine, the puppet who had first welcomed Thorn and Velin to Intra Mundum.

"Welcome brave adventurers to Intra Mundum," GennonNine said. "Three of you are already in our records. The other two need to register if you would like access to the tower. Please approach one at a time so that I can register you."

"Hey, is that a robot?" Mina asked, her voice a whisper.

"Puppet," Thorn and Velin said at the same time, looking at each other with amused smiles.

The stairs on the platform extended and GennonNine walked down onto their floating island.

"Lady Velin, it is good to see you back. Are these new challengers with you?"

"They are," Velin said. "This is Mina and that's Corvo. They'll be registering as part of my team."

"How wonderful to hear you'll be forming a team," GennonNine said. "I was wondering when you would begin challenging the tower in earnest. Has that time come?"

"Just about," Velin said, nodding.

GennonOne was still standing on the platform and had been quiet the entire time. But as Velin glanced over at the puppet, she bowed her head. She didn't say anything as Mina and Corvo were both scanned and registered to the tower's system. Once they were all registered, they climbed aboard GennonNine's platform and he took them to the main tower complex. There, GennonOne led them into the palatial structure where Velin's rooms were.

At the door, she paused and turned, bowing first to Velin and then to Thorn. "It is wonderful to see that you are safe, Lady Velin. I have reflected on my previous behavior and found myself out of line with my directive. I request your forgiveness for this breach."

Watching as the puppet apologized, Velin's eyebrows rose ever so slightly. "I appreciate the apology," she said, "but I don't think it's me you need to be apologizing to."

To Thorn's surprise, GennonOne agreed. "You are correct, Lady Velin." Turning to Thorn, she bowed once more, this time deeper. "My apologies, Thorn. I have reflected on my actions and have determined that I was in error. I took you to be a threat to Lady Velin's safety, but I now recognize that that is not the case. I would ask for your forgiveness and that you would look past my foolish action. It is the desire of my people to fulfill our role, and I believe I was overzealous in my pursuit of it."

With an easy smile, Thorn waved his hand. "Think nothing of it," he said. "You're forgiven. I trust that we won't have problems like this in the future, and I know that we'll get along well. After all, we both want the same thing."

"Indeed," GennonOne said. "If you have need of anything, please don't hesitate to let me know."

With that, she bowed once more, opening the door into the apartments. Following Velin in, Mina looked around and whistled.

"Fancy place you got. And you said this is yours, Velin? Not Thorn's?"

With a small smile, Velin nodded as Thorn sighed dramatically.

"It's true. Velin's the big shot around here," he said.

"How long do we have until Akira and Hati arrive?" Velin asked, changing the subject.

"It shouldn't be too long now," Thorn said. "Maybe a couple of hours or half a day. From what Akira said, they're nearly to the gate that they'll be taking."

"Where are they coming from?" Mina asked.

"One of the god beasts' cities, under the control of the Council of Gods. But nearly every faction has gates that lead to Intra Mundum. So once they get there, it should be as simple as taking the gate."

"Why does that sound like a flag," Corvo asked, shaking his head.

"A flag?"

Seeing Thorn didn't know what he was talking about, Corvo waved his hand.

"You know, like when you say, 'oh, that'll never happen,' and then it's bound to happen. That's a flag."

"Ah, well, then definitely a flag," Thorn said, nodding. "That's one of the reasons I wanted to come to Intra Mundum a little bit ahead of time, just in case they had any trouble."

"If they do, what are we going to do about it?" Mina asked.

"Eve is tracking their location now, and Master Levandi has set up shop here with Prince Felix of the Tardoff clan. So if things look like they're not going well, we'll get Master Levandi to teleport us in."

"As much fun as that sounds, I would much prefer not to make enemies of the entire god beast race," Velin said.

"Oh, we wouldn't be," Thorn replied. "We would just be saving our friends."

"Huh. Funny. The last time you tried that on Tardoff, I'm pretty sure it got you a lifetime ban."

"Fair point," Thorn conceded. "What do you folks want to do in the meantime?"

"I wouldn't mind looking around a little bit," Mina said. "It looked like there were some pretty large markets around the tower. Is that right?"

"Yeah, there are. A lot of people trade goods from the different floors," Thorn said. "The first nine floors are almost completely unique to the individual teams that go in, and there's an endless number of them. So the stuff that comes out is pretty incredible."

"I'd love to get a sense for how the tower works," Corvo said, looking out one of the windows at the massive structure on the center of the island. "You said that the first nine floors are sort of a preliminary test, right?"

"Yes," Thorn replied. "Every three floors, there's a personal test that you have to do solo. The first and second, fourth and fifth, seventh and eighth floors are team tests that appear to be entirely randomized. Those below the 10th tier typically spend their time in those floors. Though, from what I understand, if you climb the tower, it's almost guaranteed that you'll break through to the 10th tier after completing the ninth level. From there, everything changes. The upper floors, from floor 10 through 99, are set. One world per floor, and each one is a true world. There's no limit to the number of challengers who can enter, and in order to proceed to the next floor, you need to collect challenger tokens, which means running missions, doing quests, and competing against the other challengers on that floor."

"Then what's the point of climbing floors if each of them is an entire world?" Mina asked.

"The higher you go, the higher the mana density gets," Velin said. "The stronger the opponents, and the stronger the opportunities. A team on the 50th floor is going to be significantly stronger than one stuck on the 10th."

"And the top floor? The 100th?"

"I'm actually not sure," Thorn said. "It's a little bit confusing to me. But once we get to the 100th floor, we're apparently allowed to go there any time we want. There's a large door that is said to lead to the final world, but it's impossible to open unless you've climbed the tower all the way."

"You mean completed each of the floors?" Mina asked.

"I guess," Thorn said with a shrug. "Like I said, there's still a lot I don't know about the tower. I've already passed the third floor, but will probably restart my progress so that I can run the missions with you," he said. "But all of that will likely have to wait until after Urmag‘Tal's puzzle opens up. I'm expecting to get the call from the Temple of Man any day now."

"Well, let's go shopping," Velin said, clapping her hands together.

"And find something to eat," Alph chimed in.

"I like that plan a lot," Thorn said.

The team left the palace and soon found a nice restaurant run by the puppets who staffed the tower. They were seated on a small private balcony overlooking the tower with a fantastic view of the rainbow-hued islands that surrounded it. The sunlight was soft and warm, and as they relaxed there, waiting for their food, Thorn couldn't help but smile.

"What are you thinking?" Velin asked.

"I'm thinking it's nice to be able to enjoy moments like this," Thorn said. "You know, life is full of busyness and chaos, but it's nice to have these moments of downtime too."

"Ah, speaking of busyness and chaos," seeing Thorn sit up, the others all looked at him inquisitively, but he held up his hand, his head cocked to the side as if he was listening. "Akira and Hati have run into a little bit of trouble," he said, causing Mina to cover her mouth and Corvo to nod sagely.

"I knew it," Corvo said. "I absolutely knew it."

"It seems you've been rubbing off on Akira a little bit more than you knew," Velin said. "Do we need to make a move?"

"No, but we should probably be ready when they arrive," Thorn replied, his eyes narrowing slightly as he picked up his wine glass and polished off the bit of wine that remained in it. "Let's be ready to welcome the guests who will be following close behind."

"Will they appear on one of those islands?" Corvo asked, pointing out towards the simple stone platforms where new arrivals appeared.

"Yes, but their enemies probably won't," Thorn replied. "Chances are their enemies are going to be waiting for them to step down from the platform."

"But will they be able to do anything?" Velin asked. "I mean, won't the Tower of Security keep any fights from breaking out?"

"They don't stop fights, only punish people who break the rules," Thorn replied. "I have first-hand experience of that. So it's entirely possible that whoever's chasing them will have the opportunity to capture them before security is able to interfere. I just want to make sure we're available to respond."

Across the vast gulf of the void was a small world filled with desert and large rocky outcroppings that jutted up towards the purple sky. Atop each of these rocky outcroppings stood cities, rough in construction and simple in their appearance. These were cities occupied by beasts who had gained humanoid form. In the largest of these cities, close to the center, where the gate to Intra Mundum stood, Akira and Hati were sprinting across the rooftops. Akira was little more than a red blur, her tails streaming colors as she darted through the air, while Hati, an inky black shadow that occasionally flashed with tooth and claw, followed close after her. A short ways behind them were hundreds of other beasts, each howling furiously as they gave chase.

"We should turn around and fight them. Should we turn around and fight them? I should burn them all to a crisp," Akira, clearly furious, kept muttering to herself, but any time she started to stop and turn, Hati would nudge her gently with his nose.

"We can leave all that until we meet up with Thorn and the others," the moon wolf said.

"That's true," Akira said, perking up. "It would be much more fun if Thorn was here to fight them, too. Let's go get Thorn and then we'll come back and then we'll burn them."

Not answering, Hati's eyes scanned the space between them and the dimensional gate that would lead them to Intra Mundum. They had been traveling for days, and only recently had they been attacked. As they shot towards the gate, he suddenly grabbed Akira by the fur on her back and dodged to the side, narrowly avoiding a massive paw that materialized out of thin air, smashing down onto the building where they would have been, had they continued in their path. With a loud roar, the building crumbled, destroyed by the force of the blow.

"Whoa, that was close," Akira yelled.

Another paw appeared and Akira unleashed the multicolored flames from her tail, slashing out to meet the second paw. It was huge and fell with an air of inevitability, completely destroying the flames she had unleashed and crushing down on another building. By that time, however, Akira and Hati were long gone, drawing closer to the dimensional gate.

"It's being guarded," Hati said, his voice muffled as he spoke around Akira's fur. "I'll distract them while you get through.”

“Or we could just kill them," Akira said, her eyes narrowing.

"We don't know how strong they are," Hati replied, but Akira simply shook herself free from his grip and charged forward, her speed increasing dramatically in an instant.

Crimson flame sprang up around her as she barreled down on the two god beasts who guarded the gate. One of the two god beasts, who looked like a minotaur, let out a roar and hacked down with the large axe she carried, but Akira dodged around it, slashing with her tails, which slammed into the minotaur's chest, ripping through the god beast's defenses and causing a spray of blood as its muscles were laid bare.

Hati arrived a moment later, snapping jaws intercepting a stab from the other god beast that was heading towards Akira's side. Hati's attack was so sudden, his opponent had no time to withdraw, and with a crunch, his teeth bit straight through the god beast's arm, causing it to howl in pain as he retreated.

With the two guards stumbling backwards, Akira wanted to turn and continue the fight, but Hati wouldn't let her. Once again, his teeth closed around the scruff of her neck, and he darted backwards, entering the dimensional portal, as a large figure dashed through the air towards him, unleashing another massive ethereal paw, which slammed down on the gate. But Hati and Akira were already gone.

With a crack, the gate splintered, and the energy it contained went wild, exploding in a vicious blast. Like a ripple, the force rolled outwards, leveling the city as it went. God beasts fled in all directions, and of those who were nearby, many were crushed or badly wounded. A thick cloud of smoke and dust and debris rolled through the air. But when it cleared, the figure who had launched the attack still stood in the center of the city, completely unharmed. With a click of his tongue, the massive man brushed dirt from his shirt and pants, and then turned and strode away. A moment later, Hati and Akira appeared on one of the small islands around the tower, and Thorn stood up on the balcony, his eyes gleaming.

"They're here," he said.