Awakener's Guide to Climbing the Tower

Caius blocked the Primarch’s grip and pain shot through both shoulders. His injured knee nearly folded beneath him, but somehow he remained standing.

He had never fought a Primarch before. Not in this life, and not in the one before it. Everything he knew about them came from old records, restricted bestiaries, and the sort of books House Solmere could acquire simply because its name opened doors ordinary people did not know existed.

Even those records had been frustratingly incomplete since Primarchs were too rare. Some scholars had argued that the Variation itself should be treated as comparable to six-star existence, not because every Primarch possessed the same strength, but because the mutation distorted the limits of whatever monster carried it.

A normal monster could become something that no longer behaved like a normal. An Elite-class monster could step beyond the ceiling its class was supposed to possess. And this thing... this was still only an Elite.

Caius felt his stomach tighten. ’If an Elite Primarch could do this, what happens when a Disaster-class developed the same variation? A Calamity?’

He had read theories, never verified encounters since there were records with missing pages, reports that ended with entire parties classified as unrecoverable. One document from an old guild had contained only the phrase:

| Do not allow the Primarch to complete. |

For once, not knowing felt worse than knowing.

The Primarch pushed harder and a scale overhead moved, then another. Gold flared beneath the creature’s feet, and Caius felt the Chamber correct the difference between them. For a while, the creature’s strength stopped increasing against him.

Immediately, something inside his chest tightened. There it was, the cost. His breath caught as the Primarch applied more force. Pressure crawled through his ribs, sharp and deep, while blood slipped warm from his nose.

"Caius!"

He heard her but he did not look. He couldn’t since the moment he divided his attention, the Primarch would crush him into the floor.

Then chains rattled.

"Fuck!"

Misha swore and that got his attention.

Caius’ eyes flicked sideways just enough to see golden chains rise from the Chamber floor and cross before her. Two crossed before her chest, and another curved around her right side.

「 〔SYSTEM NOTICE〕

Interference Detected.

The Scales have recognized two opposing parties.

Judgement in progress.

External intervention is prohibited.

Unrecognized entities may not enter, attack, assist, or alter either side while Equinox is being enforced.

Interference Restriction: ACTIVE

—

The Scales admit no third weight.

Any successful interference will immediately invalidate the judgement and cancel the Constellation Chamber. 」

Misha stared at it, then at him. "Are you serious?"

Caius would have liked to say no. He had not known the Chamber would enforce that condition either.

Apparently, the Libra Chamber’s interpretation of fairness involved isolating him in a duel against a six-armed corpse monstrosity that regenerated faster than they could damage it.

Misha grabbed one of the chains, and it electrocuted her. She jerked her hand back. "Ow–!"

The Primarch attacked with two arms and Caius shifted his stance.

One scale overhead dipped. The first strike slowed, not enough to become harmless but only enough that he could actually respond so he turned his staff-spear, Valecyr, and redirected the blow past his shoulder.

The second descended from above, and another scale tipped. Caius stepped inside the trajectory before the correction disappeared, amber lightning snapping from the blade as he carved across the Primarch’s wrist.

Black fluid sprayed and the monster recoiled and staggered.

Caius felt something ugly and satisfying twist beneath his ribs. He hated that he enjoyed it. Not the winning ground, but enjoyed being able to do something.

Regression had ruined him that way. Once a person learned enough to believe tragedy could be prevented, helplessness became intolerable. Every failure started looking personal, every death became something he should have predicted, and every mistake became proof that he had wasted the knowledge other people would have killed to possess.

Caius spent years carrying that stupidity around and calling it responsibility.

The Primarch recovered and growled. "GRAUUUAAHH!!!"

"Caius, behind–!!"

The moment he saw the shadow, he dropped. A chain ripped through the space where his head had been.

He rolled once, and came up on his injured knee. Then the Primarch’s hooked hand descended, Caius stabbed Valecyr into the floor and used the shaft to wrench himself sideways.

Then the Primarch lifted the mallet and the bronze gong in its chest pulsed crimson.

Every scale overhead moved, hundreds, all at once.

GOOOOONNG.

The Chamber reacted immediately. Golden rings appeared through the air, one, then five, then ten, then too many too many to count.

The soundwave struck them, and each ring caught some portion of the force. The black pillars trembled around them while the golden chains spanning the Chamber chains drew taut.

The the burden reached him. Caius’ knees hit the floor. Blood burst from his mouth and splashed across the polished black stone.

"Caius!" Misha could only shout his name as she tried to pull herself free from the chains but failed doing so.

With her amber eyes burning, she only had one purpose in that moment–to serve as the catalyst for Caius’ abilities as a Libra Constellation Soul.

The Primarch’s attack exceeded everything the Chamber had corrected so far.

As the scales overhead plunged, his vision went white. For one second, Caius could not hear anything. Then–

"Caius! Dammit!" Her voice punched through the silence. "Cancel your skill! I can’t help you like this!"

He hated how frightened she sounded. He hated even more that some selfish part of him was relieved. Someone was frightened for him. There had been a time when that would have irritated him. He would have called it unnecessary, distracting. Now, after dying once, it felt embarrassingly precious.

"If I cancel it, that creature’s attack will hit all of us without correction."

"Don’t you dare make this some noble sacrifice bullshit!"

Caius planted the butt of Valecyr against the floor as the Primarch’s sound continued pressing into the Chamber.

"I wasn’t planning to."

"Fuck you! You already look sacrificial from here!"

The enormous scales behind him tilted.

’No... not yet.’ He was not going to die this easily.

"Equalize," he forced through clenched teeth.

There was nothing. Only the pressure of the burden increased.

His heart lurched. "Equalize."

Still nothing.

Caius’ fingers tightened around the shaft. Then a voice came back to him, older Misha, tired, annoyed, and alive, at least in the memory.

"If you’re going to collapse, at least have the decency to do it after the fight."

He almost laughed. Of all the things to remember... that.

Maybe that was what missing someone really became after enough time. It was not the wisdom or final speeches, it was not the important things he told himself he would never forget. It was just some stupid sentences lodged in the wrong corner of his memory, waiting years to hurt him again.

Caius dragged in a breath, then forced himself upright. "Equalize."

The word echoed from the pillars, then the chains, then somewhere impossibly far above. The great scales slammed level, every scale overhead stopped and went perfectly still.

The Primarch’s crimson pressure wave hung suspended inside the Chamber and the creature froze with it.

Caius’ legs trembled, blood ran down his chin. His heartbeat hammered painfully against his ribs as black stone beneath him illuminated.

Golden writing spread through the air.

—

W̷H̷A̷T̷ ̷E̷X̷C̷E̷E̷D̷S̷ ̷M̷U̷S̷T̷ ̷B̷E̷ ̷W̷E̷I̷G̷H̷E̷D̷

—

Another line burned beside the Primarch.

—

W̷H̷A̷T̷ ̷I̷S̷ ̷T̷A̷K̷E̷N̷ ̷M̷U̷S̷T̷ ̷B̷E̷ ̷R̷E̷T̷U̷R̷N̷E̷D̷

—

The suspended wave collapsed inward, back toward its origin. The Primarch’s own attack struck its chest.

BOOM!

Its body staggered violently, and the bronze gong earned a big crack. It spread halfway across the bronze.

Misha stared in disbelief. "...Holy shit."

Caius stared and for a moment, he simply watched the fracture spreading across the bronze. The Primarch had done that to itself.

No, the Libra Chamber had forced the debt back where it belonged.

Then a System window appeared, flashing red.

「 〔CONSTELLATION CHAMBER〕

Stability: 48%

Equinox correction exceeding sustainable output.

If Chamber Stability reaches 0%, forced collapse will occur. 」

Caius wiped the blood from his mouth with the back of his hand as he watched the crack in the gong begin moving. Crimson threads crawled across the fracture, slowly at first, then faster. Bronze pulled together and the crack narrowed close.

Right. The Chamber could restrain force, could turn overwhelming power back against its source but none of that mattered if the bastard repaired itself every time they hurt it.

He watched the crimson threads disappear beneath newly formed bronze. They were feeding the gong from somewhere inside the creature. Its body, its stored flesh, the Vestiges it had consumed. Perhaps that was the answer. Not destroying the gong while it remained connected... separating it.

If the regeneration relied on the Primarch’s body continuously feeding material into the bronze structure, then severing the gong completely might prevent it from rebuilding. Might.

He had no proof, no previous battle to remember, and no hidden answer buried in his regression. Just a theory.

The Primarch straightened, its six arms moved again.

The scales behind him remained level, for now. Despite everything people thought about regressors, despite all the expectations that came with knowing a future that no longer existed, Caius had no idea what happened next.

The Primarch had never existed in his previous timeline, he never met Astrid and Hiiro, this Chamber had never opened this way, and Misha had never reached this point beside him so for once, the future ahead of him was completely dark.

Perhaps that was what frightened him most. Or perhaps, somewhere beneath all that fear, it was also the first thing that had felt like living his life for himself.

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!