Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Olivia kicked the door open before the Vestiges could finish breaking through. The heavy slab crashed into the woodcutter at the front of the pack. Its face folded against the timber with a wet crack, and the force sent it stumbling backward into the corpses packed behind it. Then she stepped through the doorway using Misha’s body as though she had been waiting all day for someone to give her a proper entrance.

「 〔BROADCAST NOTICE〕

Distinguished Observers have entered your Observation Channel.

Observation Priority has increased.

Your broadcast has been elevated within the Observation Network.

—

Active Observers: 14 」

Misha stared at the number. That had escalated quickly.

Then her attention drifted toward herself. Or rather, toward the body that currently belonged to Olivia. Her soul hovered close beside it, connected enough that she could see through the same battlefield.

’Can they see me floating here?’

She glanced toward the empty air around herself. Nothing indicated that they could. There was no chat reaction and no sudden comments asking why another woman was floating around the place. So probably not. That was one problem solved.

Unfortunately, Olivia could hear her perfectly.

’Wonderful.’

The nearest Vestige lowered a cleaver into a proper fighting grip. A woman still dressed in a guard’s ruined uniform brought her spear forward, one foot sliding back automatically. The creature carrying half a door shifted the wooden slab in front of itself like a shield.

Amber eyes burned brighter through the eyeholes of the white cat mask. Beneath it, Olivia smiled. "You want the bell?"

She lifted her wrist and gave it a delicate shake.

Chime.

Every clicking mouth fell silent.

Olivia’s smile deepened. "Come and get it."

The Vestiges charged. Misha had already noticed that they were different from the shambling dead she knew from movies, games, and every zombie show she had once forced Caleb and Mateo to sit through with her.

Watching them attack removed the comparison entirely. The Vestige Husks did more than animate dead muscles. Black fibers threaded through the host’s spinal column and spread into major muscle groups, reinforcing what decay had weakened. The parasite forced contractions beyond the natural limits a living nervous system would allow.

A living body protected itself. Muscles did not always use their maximum possible force because doing so repeatedly could rupture tendons, damage joints, or fracture bone.

Vestige Husks had no reason to care. Their hosts were already dead so if a shoulder tore itself apart delivering one stronger swing, the parasite simply used the arm until it stopped functioning. The result was ugly. They were fast, strong, and far too coordinated.

The guard attacked first, her spear came forward in a clean thrust aimed beneath Misha’s ribs.

Olivia slipped sideways. The spearhead passed close enough to brush the cloak.

The fabric reacted. A pulse of warmth spread across her body. Then a System window burst open.

「〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Hearthkeeper’s Cloak synchronization has reached 100%

Bloodline Recognition complete.

All Synchronization Restrictions have been removed.

—

Sealed Function Detected:

<COMBAT FORM>

—

Combat Configuration Established.

Transformation commencing... 」

"What?" Misha had barely spoken before the cloak moved. The heavy fabric snapped inward as though caught by a violent wind. The long hem swept upward from the ground and wrapped around her body’s legs.

For one terrible second, Misha thought it was trying to suffocate its wearer. Then the material dissolved into hundreds of dark mana threads. They slid over her body in interlocking bands, weaving across her thighs, waist, arms, and torso with frightening precision.

The hood remained. So did the fur lining around her shoulders.

Everything else changed. Loose cloth compressed into a fitted combat layer that followed the structure of her body without restricting movement. The original cloak folded itself into reinforced panels along her body and thin lines of amber mana appeared between them, glowing briefly as they sealed together.

The material tightened around her boots, gloves formed over her hands, and the excess fabric vanished completely, leaving nothing hanging behind for an enemy to grab. It looked like armor that had learned how to breathe.

Another window appeared.

「〔Hearthkeeper’s Cloak — Combat Form〕

Unlocked Abilities:

Attribute Enhancement

Mana Conduction

Combat configuration synchronized to registered wearer. 」

Misha could only stare. She had known the cloak was unusual. She had known its synchronization was incomplete. Its synchronization had been sitting at one percent when she first received it, she never checked its progress after that. But this–

Caleb had given her something far more absurd than she had realized.

Olivia looked down at the transformed outfit while still holding the guard’s spear beneath one arm.

"Oh." Her voice came warm with delight. She turned one wrist, admiring the fitted black material over Misha’s hand. "I’m loving this~"

Misha’s nonexistent jaw might as well have dropped. "You’re in the middle of a fight."

Olivia twisted the trapped spear, dragged the corpse forward, and slashed. Twinfang flashed and the head separated neatly.

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

"I can appreciate fashion and murder simultaneously, Master." Then she laughed. The sound was entirely wrong coming from Misha’s mouth. It was far too delighted while being surrounded by corpses.

<The Saint Buried Upside Down> Artifact transformation?

<Endless Dominion> Probably one of those bloodline-locked equipment.

<The Last Survivor of an Unwritten World> Who is she speaking to?

<The Prisoner of Floor One Hundred> She’s called Gravekeeper. Maybe she has a skill that can communicate with souls?

<The Last Survivor of an Unwritten World> Interesting.

〔 FAVOR +50 → Gravekeeper 〕

Misha’s attention caught on the chat. So they really could not see her, or hear her. They only heard Olivia’s side of the conversation.

Olivia ducked beneath the woodcutter’s axe. The blade buried itself in the doorframe then she stepped onto the trapped handle, ran up it, planted one boot against the corpse’s shoulder, and flipped cleanly over its head.

Her daggers crossed beneath its jaw and another head fell.

「 You have killed a Vestige!

EXP +75 」

"Olivia," Misha said.

"Yes, Master?"

"The square."

Olivia stabbed one dagger into the crawling Husk before it could retreat into the corpse’s spine. "I remember."

"You are going the wrong way."

"I am taking the scenic route."

"The objective is to lead them away from Lysa, not tour Exodus."

Olivia slipped aside as another weapon came for her throat. "Master, you really must let this girl enjoy herself. I almost thought you had forgotten me."

Misha’s brow twitched. "That’s because every time I let you use my body, you do something that makes me regret it."

Olivia chuckled playfully. "If Gerbaut were here, he would appreciate my efficiency."

"Gerbaut would tell you to stop playing with the bodies."

There was a brief silence that followed before Olivia drove both daggers through another corpse’s temples. "He has such a stern way of expressing affection~"

<The Last Survivor of an Unwritten World> She is definitely conversing with someone. It could be linked consciousness, right?

<The Saint Buried Upside Down> Probably.

Misha stopped reading. It would only be a matter of time before they could guess what kind of skill she had. Within the first few minutes of her first proper broadcast, Olivia was practically advertising that another consciousness could inhabit the body.

"Can you stop answering me out loud?"

Olivia parried a cleaver. "No."

"You’re doing this on purpose aren’t you?"

Misha felt a headache forming despite not currently occupying the skull responsible for producing it.

"Olivia."

"Eventually." Then she rang the bell again.

Chime-chime.

Misha froze and stared at her own possessed body in disbelief. "Why did you do that?"

The answer arrived when clicking echoes from another street, then another.

"That is not good news."

"It is to me." Olivia kept ringing the bell like a child.

"STOP RINGING THE BELL!"

She darted through the first group before Misha could say anything more.

Twinfang moved beautifully in her hands. That was the infuriating part. She was horrifyingly good. Olivia fought as though every battle were choreography designed for an audience of one. Gerbaut, presumably.

Her body slipped between two Vestiges, severed the tendons behind one knee, used the collapsing corpse as a step, then spun over the other’s spear and took its head on the landing. The bell sang every time her wrist moved which meant every corpse within hearing distance received a convenient invitation in the middle of the night.

The original twenty became twenty-seven. Then it became somewhere above thirty.

Misha stopped counting. Olivia was supposed to create a diversion. Technically, she was succeeding enthusiastically.

The problem was that Misha had intended to pull one pack away from Lysa’s route. And yet, Olivia appeared determined to introduce herself to the entire district. In fact, she suspected there was not a single undead creature in the district that still cared about anything except for the woman ringing their dinner bell in the middle of the night.

Misha considered terminating the possession early but she had no control over that, not until the possession time ended.

Then three more Vestiges appeared on a rooftop bridge. Two carried hooked poles.

’Mortuary Row. Fantastic.’

Olivia looked up, her smile became almost tender beneath the mask. "Oh, those are interesting~"

"Do not–"

Olivia rang the bell.

Misha briefly considered whether it was possible to strangle one of her own Constellation Souls. Probably not. She was beginning to wish she could test it.

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